(Heat) Pumpin' it Up!

I am a self-admitted control freak, but I also know that sometimes it's nice when other people make decisions.  Like, where we're going for lunch or what movie we're going to see or what the run route is.  What's not fun is when home improvement decisions are made for you.

A few weeks ago when my mom & I were traveling to Birmingham for the Mercedes Marathon, we were talking about my next big project at the house.  I was trying to decided between tiling the kitchen or making some changes to my bathroom.  Unfortunately, when I got home I was greeted by the smell of gas in the house.  We looked at the furnace and the pilot light looked ok, so we decided it was probably nothing.  Not long after she left, the heat kicked on and made a funny noise, which I later discovered coincided with what looked like a mini explosion.  Scary.  I turned the unit off and called someone to come look at it Monday morning.

Long story short, I got two opinions that basically said the furnace is older than I am and fixing the problem will be more expensive than it's worth, and I should consider getting a new unit.  So, that's what I decided to do.  I also decided to go with a heat pump because I hear that it's more energy efficient.  Fortunately it hasn't been cold since my furnace died so not having heat has not really been a big deal.

I took the day off while the work was being done at the house.  I worked on catching up on some paperwork, and clearing off the DVR  (otherwise how else could I justify taking a day off work to watch TV?).  Still, it was not the most exciting way to spend the day and I didn't even get to take a nap.  But I do have a brand new Heat & AC system.  Sometime soon(ish) I will replace my gas water heater with an electric, and then my house will be all electric.  Yay!

Here's a picture of the 30+ year old furnace:

It's About Time Someone Recognized My Princess Status

Last weekend, I ran the Disney Princess Half Marathon!!  I have been wanting to run this race for quite some time.  Duh, a princess *needs* to run a princess race, right?

My friend Cassie & I left Mobile Friday mid day for the 8 hour drive (and a time change) to Orlando, FL.  We got to our hotel around 10:30 pm (bedtime - haha).  Then Sunday we went to ESPN Wide World of Sports for the Expo.  I had registered for this race several months ago (while the registration fees were still "cheap") (quotation marks are my best effort at writing in sarcasm) so I had forgotten that they ask you what your favorite Disney Princess is.  I chose Aurora so they gave me a pink race bib.  Yay!!!!  Also, I love when they put your name on the race bib.  It automatically goes to the top of my Favorite Race Bib list.  Double Yay!!!  Therefore, imagine my excitement to get a race number with "Princess Joy" printed on it.  Triple Yay!!!  Jackpot of race bibs!

The rest of the expo was pretty standard.  I think it was smaller than the Marine Corps Marathon expo but it was also less crowded which is a good thing.  I didn't spend too much money - bought some mouse ears to wear during the race, a new pair of Nike running shorts (I don't have a problem, I can quit any time I want) and a super cute new 26.2 magnet for my car.

Because we had only a half a day left, we decided not to go to one of the amusement parks.  Instead, we decided to go to the giant outlet mall we saw as we were driving in the night before.  For these two girls, an outlet mall of that size is our Disney World.  Probably not the best way to rest your legs for race the next day, but it was fun.  :)

Thanks to having read Skinny Runner's recap of the Tinkerbell Half Marathon, I kinda knew what to expect.    Especially the part about the pre-dawn start time.  Race instructions advised us to be parked by 4 am (Eastern Time) so we set our alarms for 2:30 am.  Which means I went to bed on Saturday night early even by my standards.  haha  I wasn't crazy about the timetable for the race start.  We also spent a lot of time standing around (waiting in the potty line, walking to the corrals...) and it was a little chilly out.  When I had looked at the weather I thought it would be warm enough that I didn't need to bring extra clothes.  But standing around before the race, I was really wishing I had brought something to wrap up in before the race.

The start of the race was pretty awesome.  It was still dark out, and they shot off fireworks at the beginning of each corral start.  It seemed like no time when I got to the first mile marker/water stop.  There was so much excitement and so much to see along the way that the miles seemed to tick off pretty quickly.  However, I also know that as far as pacing goes, I was doing a pretty crappy job.  All along the course there were Disney characters and you could have your picture made with them.  I wasn't inclined to stop and take too many pictures, although I did stop for a picture of Cinderella's castle.

I finished the race with a pretty good time; better than I expected actually.  It was a pretty big race - approximately 20,000 people, and it's hard to navigate through the crowds at times.  But the medal is so pretty!!!

After the race, we went straight back to our hotel to get cleaned up and check out.  We got back to Mobile around 7:30 and I went to bed as soon as I could, after having been up for about 20 hours.  It was a really fun race and weekend away.

Shoe of the Day

I ran across these super cute shoes at Shoe Station last weekend!  At first I thought they were peacock feathers but now I'm not so sure.

I can hardly keep up with myself

Another Mardi Gras has come and gone.  The last few days were jam-packed - Joe Cain 5K, IM Ball and Fat Tuesday wrapped up with the KOR Reception.

The Joe Cain 5K was awesome.  After we had a tropical storm come through on Saturday, the weather for Sunday was dry!  We had an amazing turnout.  For both races this weekend I worked at the finish line and it's pretty cool seeing all the runners as they come though.  It was a little cloudy and windy, but that didn't stop us from dancing in the street until the widows arrived!  If that doesn't make any sense to you, our post-race party is across the street from Joe Cain's house and we party until Joe Cain's Merry Widows come by and visit the house.  It's always a great time and I love my running club!

Fat Tuesday was another crazy busy fun day.  I spent the same amount downtown as I do on a regular work day, but I was probably twice as tired.  Of course, I had twice as much fun so that explains it.  :)  However, as with every year I'm glad to see Mardi Gras come to an end and for life to get back to normal.

Of course we can't forget that today marks the beginning of the Lenten season.  I have decided that I am going to give up fried foods for Lent.  I do love me some french fries and chicken fingers so this will be tough!!!  On Sunday at church we talked about the purpose of Lent being to regain control.  I definitely need to regain control of my eating habits, especially now that I am not training for a marathon.

Confession: tonight was the first time I have ran since last Thursday.  Crazy!  It was great to get back to regular routine of changing clothes in the office bathroom and rushing out the door to go run.  Heck, I was even happy to be out there doing hill repeats!!!!

Tomorrow is my Friday!  I am taking Friday off because my friend Cassie & I are driving to Orlando for the Disney Princess Half Marathon on Sunday.  I am so excited!!!  This will be my first Disney race, and my first time at Disney in over 10 years.  It's going to be a quick trip and another busy weekend.

Recovery

This week seemed to have flown by, and maybe not in a good way.  When I came home Sunday from Birmingham, my post-Marathon PR bubble was burst by the discovery that my furnace was malfunctioning.  Long story short, it needs to be replaced and will be soon.  But it still added a little extra stress to my week.

Normally after I run a marathon I take a few days off from running, but I had to break out the running shoes on Monday night for one of my favorite runs during the whole year.  Our Monday night running group meets at Callaghan's instead of Heroes every year on the second Monday before Fat Tuesday, and then we run the parade route before the parade starts.  We dress up silly and it's always funny to hear what people say as we are running through the streets.  Mostly it's a lot of "Run Forrest Run" (only my most *favorite* running joke ever) and "what are you doing"?

I only ran one other day this week.  I was going to run this morning at the BOMB but we needed extra volunteers and the weather was a drizzly mess.  I will get back to my schedule after Fat Tuesday.  We're in the home stretch for Mardi Gras... tomorrow is the Joe Cain 5K.  I've got my tutu ready and we are going to have a blast!

Lucky #4

Yesterday I finished my 4th marathon - Mercedes Marathon!!!  I decided to this marathon for a number of reasons - REALLY cool medal, relatively close to home (~4 hours away) and one of my training partners was doing it as a part of the 3N3 Alabama Marathon challenge.

After I finished the Marine Corps Marathon at the end of October, I decided that I would keep my mileage up and kinda stay in "marathon training mode" until February.  I didn't have a real time goal for this race, other than just getting out there and enjoying it and getting my medal at the end.  I had heard this race was pretty hilly and tough.

My mom and I drove up to Birmingham on Saturday, the day before the race.  She had been at my first two marathons, but she didn't go with me to Washington, D.C., so I was really glad to know she would be out there on the race course.

I started to get a little nervous leading up to the race because the forecast went from lows in the 40's to lows in the 20's - making it even colder than Marine Corps (and it snowed the day before!).  However, I stuck with my plan of wearing a short sleeved shirt, shorts, compression socks and arm warmers.  I also wore gloves and ear warmers.  I brought a long sleeved shirt that I didn't mind throwing away on the course; I wore it for the first 4 3/4 miles before I decided I was warm enough to take it off.  My legs were tingling from the cold at first but they eventually warmed up too.

I didn't start really thinking about my finish time until around mile 16 when I saw a 4:00 pace group.  I thought that if I had made it this far I might could stick with them for the rest of the race.  I was a little concerned that my stop at the potty could keep me from a sub-4 finish time, and that just made me mad.  lol  I just kept telling myself that I felt good and it was important to finish the race happy.  It wasn't until I passed the clock at mile 25 that I let myself get excited about finishing under 4 hours.  Even better - I set a new PR with 3:52!!!!  I was beyond excited.

A few other thoughts about the race:
- This was my first marathon that was a double loop.  I wasn't sure if I would like it or not, but it was fine.  I don't know if it was better or not, but I didn't hate it.
- It was so cold that the water/powerade cups had ice chips in them, which was kind of fun.  I like slushies.  However, there were also patches of ice at the water stops, which was not fun.  I slipped a little once, and that was scary.
- There weren't a lot of funny sings like you see at big races, but I did see one and it was the best one I've seen at all my races - "You trained for this race longer than Kim Kardashian was married."  True story - technically I had been training for this marathon since the end of May.

In short, it was a great race.  Beautiful (even though cold) weather, new PR, no injuries, super-cool medal and I had a great trip with my mom.  I think Huntsville may be next!

Time flies...

Where the heck did January go?!?!?  And how has February snuck almost a whole week in?

I finished up January with 191.36 miles, over 10% of the way to my goal of 1800 miles.  Woo hoo!  February could possibly be a little short due to tapering for the marathon, recovering from the marathon and celebrating Mardi Gras.  ;)

This weekend I ran the Double Bridge Run in Pensacola for the first time.  It was a blast!!!  Aside from the 60 degree temperature, the two monster bridges and the headwind, it was a great time.  The post race party was great too.

I cannot believe the marathon is less than a week away!!!  So far, the forecast looks like perfect marathon weather - sunny and lows in the 40s.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed because a lot can change in a few days.  I'm a little nervous because I know this race is going to be hilly and hilly hurts.  But, I'm just going to get out there and try to enjoy myself and not worry too much.  I can't wait to get my new bling!