Mother Racer

We (Corom, the girls and I) woke up early and went to the Nestle 5k run.

I ran a 19 minute warmup (about 2 1/2 miles). It felt good. Then we began the 3.1 mile race. Oh my goodness… I have not ran a 5k race since last summer! People fly in this distance! There were a couple of college girls that I knew would be ahead of me… The one person that came out of nowhere-and this is very humbling, a little embarrassing and me being a coach, a little exciting-was seeing this little girl in front if me. Right from the beginning she took off… I kept thinking she was going to run out of energy… Oh no, she kept going and running strong. I was running 5:59 minute miles and she was obviously going faster. The 1st mile and 1/2 was a gradual uphill and then a quarter of it was steep. I love up hills and I began to gain on her… Until we began the descent down. Yep… Not going to happen. After the race, which I ran a 18:35 or 36 (5:59-6 minute pace), I met up with the young lady…

I found out she is 10 years old!!! She came in 2nd… Yeah I was very humbled. My excuse to everyone is that I am training for a marathon now. 😉 I did go on a 31 minute run afterwards… A good chunk of the run was with my other fellow Runner’s Corner teammates. They are all very talented runners and work hard at it.

The other part of my run was running back to Corom and Mike as they were pushing the stroller and helping them out. I love that the girls love to do these races. I need to get them running the 5ks now!

I also saw a few of the kids I coach at the high school at this race. They raced well!!! I didn’t stay for awards because I took my oldest to an activity for Activity Days for the 8-11 year olds. While she was there I went out for another 44:12.39; 6 1/2 miles. I ran a total of 1:55 +/- about 16 +/- miles. My legs are tired. Corom, Mike and the 3 younger girls stayed for the raffle of prizes they do. Yeah… We didn’t win anything. 😦 My oldest had a lot of fun at her activity…

At home, I mowed the lawn and Corom fixed all of our sprinklers. Our older dog, Harley (an English Mastiff) for some reason started to chew up all the sprinkler heads when the sprinklers are going. She goes nutty on them.

The girls had a few friends over today and they played outside the entire time. After the girls went to bed, some friends came over and we watched a movie.

I woke up at 7 and got out the door by 7:15 for my “late” morning run. We didn’t go to bed until 1 a.m. so I knew I would have a tough time getting up. I went out for a 43:59.56 minute run. I took it easy today not because I wanted to, it was more because I couldn’t really go faster. 🙂 Ahhhhh, I just hope it comes together in 2 weeks! I do have a race in the morning (most likely… I forgot to sign up for this 5k and now it costs a lot more)… I came home because Corom had to leave by 8 for work and I had to get the girls and head off to the Youth City Track practice.

The kids are great and it is fun to be around them. We went to our friend’s house for a brunch. They are leaving on vacation and wanted to say goodbye to our Foriegn exchange student. She leaves in a week and a half.

It was good food and we had fun. After, I unpacked, cleaned, did laundry, made dinner, grocery shopped and had the neighbor kids over all day. I got a lot done while the kids entertained each other. I am tired but Corom wanted to watch a movie so we watched a movie. It is time for bed!

This morning I woke up and went for a quick 38:36.04 minute run. In my tapering schedule, I was supposed to run a 5 mile recovery run. So I know I was close to that distance. It was good to have a short run today because packing up camp seems to take forever…

Oh… The picture on the bottom right is part of a prank we pulled on a neighboring campsite for another neighboring campsite. A little confusing but it was funny. We freaked them out (Mike and Corom snuck into their campsite late at night put that right in front of their tent door). They didn’t know us and we obviously didn’t know them. We got to know the people we helped out and yeah… Anyway, my girls were being entertained by the older kids…

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and Corom snuck off to go take his shower…

This beach camping area does have warm showers for the campers but as you can see… We are to cheap to spend the money for a warm shower. 🙂 Well it was off for our long trip home… The first hour into our drive we ended up in traffic. It was noon California time and it was stop and go. I miss living in California until I come out and visit and have to hop on the freeways.

We stopped in Bakersfield to get gas and it was 103 out. Oh it was a heat wave. It was nice to get in our cool air-conditioned van and continue on to our next stop (a town outside of Vegas)… Well of course our overheat sign pops up in the car. Down comes the windows and on comes the heater. Holy hot!!! My kids, Z (our Foriegn exchange student), her friend from Ukraine, Corom and I were all sweating and miserable! The problem was the climb from Bakers to Las Vegas. Our car wasn’t doing to well with the air on and climbing the long, steep hills. Well, we probably shed a few pounds, so that was a bonus. We almost always stop off in Beaver, Utah to get a Blizzard from DQ. All the kids were sleeping but our oldest (and the Fullmer’s kids were awake)… I felt a little bad because she got into trouble a little earlier and lost her “treat” privilege. Corom and I shared a blizzard and she wasn’t able to have any. Hopefully next time…

Well we are an hour away from home and my bum is hurting from sitting all day! It was a fun trip and is always hard to come home to “life”. I do have say my kids and Z and her friend did amazing with the drive. We don’t have a T.V. In the car or any video games, etc. They entertain each other and themselves. They did bring a few books to read but other than that they figured out how to keep themselves busy. I do have good kids with a huge imagination. It was a fun trip… We all had a great time.

My run started at 5:45 a.m. I ran around the beach and the campsites today. I ran for 50.02 and then finished off with 6 x 100 strides. I was supposed to get at least 5 miles in but ran more than that. I did add a little speed to my workout. I tempoed for 6:15, then for 3:30 and then for 2 minutes. It felt good but my legs have been feeling “heavy” lately. I know that time will pass. We had another fun and eventful day… There was a baby seal that needed some help and of course Corom and Mike had to help capture and put the seal in the cage.

We also had the privilege of being on the same beach as a movie production… They were filming a movie “American Sniper” next to us. It is based on the Navy Seals and Bradley Cooper is one of the main characters. 😉

Then of course we had to bury all the girls (18 and younger) today…

Then came the sand art… Every year we come up with some sand design…

The fun times at the beach… Lots of play…

This was our way to save $ on showers. It was $1 for a 2 minute warm shower. Yeah trying to get 4 girls with curly hair through a shower that quick is not going to happen. Good thing they had a sink/faucet by the bathrooms…

We went for a little hike with the kids while Mike and Corom went snorkeling and spear fishing…

They speared one…

We taught Z (our Foriegn exchange student) how to build and start a fire, they tried to teach my youngest how to ride a bike, my sister-in-law and nephews came back and hung out for a while, and we hung out with our “neighbors” and helped them prank another campsite… I don’t know how we get involved with this kind of stuff, but I love it!!!

It was a fun ride today. 😉

My youngest got up at 5:30 a.m. To go to the potty… She went back to sleep and I decided to go for my morning run. I ran all around the campsites, around the beaches and on the sand, in the trails around here (but not to far because I am kind of a chicken running by myself on trails), and on the highway. I was able to go for 1:25.08. I wanted to get 12 miles in so I know I was pretty close to that. It was an amazing run! I took it easy this morning. When I got back we began the process of the breakfast cooking…

We had so much fun at the beach today! We had the “men” harpooning fish for our dinner, the girls looking for crabs and sea creatures, making sand mermaids, jumping in the waves, climbing the rocks and hanging out with our cousins (they live about 20 minutes away).

My oldest was being attacked by the seagulls at one point because she laid down with a sandwich in her hand…

(I videoed it but I can’t download it)… We had a blast riding the bikes, long board (Corom’s snowboard turned into a long board) and scooter around the campsites…

Then the girls decided to sell seashells and little pieces of firewood in front of our campsite… Yeah… That’s a real seller. Seashells that everyone else found on the beach today and little pieces of wood that is lying around every where. They were sitting out there for quit some time. We met some of our neighboring campers, gave them $5 and asked if they would come over and buy them out. 😉

We did the S’more thing and of course the campfire stories…

Another late night with the girls but it was a fun day.