I ran my first Half Marathon!!!! Whoo Hoo!!!

I did it!!!!!!!

Yes, I ran my very first Half Marathon and no I’m not dead!!! It was so much fun! There were over 20,000 people that ran it and over 60% of them were women because WE ROCK!!!!
I was actually dreading it because it was pouring rain the night before. In fact, the rain woke me up in the middle of the night, the night before the race. I just kept looking out the window and thinking “I can’t believe I have to run in this horrible weather tomorrow”.
But, as my luck would have it, the sun was shining and it was one of the most beautiful days ever! It was actually a little warm out when my wave started at 7:45am.
I started the race with my dear friend, Monique. After about 2 or 3 minutes I realized that her pace and my pace are not the same. Mo is a runner and I’m a jogger. So, I gladly told her to go ahead and I’d see her at the finish, which I did!
One of my favorite parts of the race was when I came over a small bridge. Just as I came to the bridge one of my favorite running songs came on my IPOD, Train’s (of course it was a Train song) “Parachute”. I looked to my left and the ocean looked so amazing and then I happened to look to my right and the mountains were covered in snow! How amazing is that? That right there is why I run! It is just so peaceful, there’s nothing else like it.
Another great thing during all of the races that I look forward to is seeing all of the great, motivating signs that the spectators hold up to cheer us on. There were 2 that really stuck out in my mind and kept me going. The first one that I saw several times was “Don’t stop, people are watching!”. I love that one! I swear to you it definately makes you not want to stop, which by the way, I didn’t!!!! The other sign that I saw several times was “through God, all things are possible”. Amen!
I was definately sore after the race, 13.5 miles of non-stop running will do that to you. Right after, I really thought that I didn’t care to do another one of these. I prefer Triathlons and Mud Runs. But…2 things happened that quickly changed my mind.
First, Chris and I had breakfast in Huntington right after the race. There were people there wearing big medals around their necks that were different from the one that I got. So I asked them where they got it. They got the big one from competing in 3 consecutive marathons, HB, San Francisco (across the Golden Gate Bridge) and in San Diego. San Francisco sounds like a total blast so it definately sparked my interest.
The second thing was that after I got home & took a shower I felt a sting on my chest when the water hit me. It stung really badly. It was because I had put a protein bar in my jog bra in case I got hungry because I ate such a light dinner and the freakin bar cut my chest in 2 places!! It cut it pretty badly, I had to put Neosporin on it. I’m such a masachist that the first thing that came to mind was “No pain, no gain!”
And with that ladies and gentlemen, I definately want to rock another half marathon! Still no interest to do a full marathon, that’s just stupid!!!!!!!
By the way, yes I run like a girl…..try to keep up!!!!!!!!!!!!

Man, I feel like a woman!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today officially begins the countdown to my 40th Birthday!!!! Whoo Hoo!! I’ve decided to focus on the positive things about turning 40 as opposed to curling up in a ball with a bottle of Jack Daniels and balling my head off, like a part of me wants to do!!!!!!! Ha-ha!
For this entire month I am going to find 40 positive things about turning 40 and share all of those with you. I would love to hear from all of my beautiful 40+ year old friends on what you love about being 40. Either post it here or send me FB message.
Let me start by saying that I’m not going to put them in order of what makes me the happiest, I’m just going to post as it comes to my mind. First though happens to be the most important, for sure. I’ve always said that knowone is guaranteed tomorrow and that’s why I feel very lucky and blessed to be turning 40. The fact that I’ve made it this far is AWESOME!!!
I survived my childhood, survived high school (eeekkkk), lived long enough to get married & have 3 amazing children, traveled, got not 1 but 2 chances to sing up on stage with my favorite band TRAIN, competed in many athletic events, got to meet my nutrition hero Bob Greene, and I’ve done all of this before I turned 40! Wow, that’s a lifetime of achievements already!
I’m looking forward to turning 40 at the end of this month just to see what I can do next in my life. Bring it on 40!!!!!!!!!! Now where did I put my keys??????? Just kiddin!!!!!!
Still 39,
Michelle

What the heck?

Well, I’ll just say that my workouts are sucking right now! I’m so messed up! I finally found a great job that I really like but I’m working way too much! It’s making my workouts super tough! It’s hard to work all day, come home & make dinner then hit the gym. There’s not a whole lot of family time and that’s really bumming me out so I’ve cut my gym time back.
Also, my workouts have gone from always being outdoors to always being indoors except for the weekends. I hate workingout indoors except for the fun spin classes and the fun Body Pump classes. Those are great but I love to run! I want to poke my eyes out on the treadmill when I run for a long time. It’s so boring!
I’ve only got a few weeks left until my half marathon and I will be so glad when it’s over. I won’t feel so guilty about not running as much.
Right now my training has to consist of a lot of running and not a lot of the classes at the gym but like I said I can’t mentally do it. I just love to be outdoors. I guess I’ll be the slowest one at the marathon but I know I can do it. Oh well. I don’t really care to be honest, I’m just glad that I’m staying healthy and trying to have fun and I’ve finally got a job that I really like!
I wanted to post a fun video with this but I haven’t figured out how to download from my FLIP. I’m sure it’s pretty easy but I hate techey stuff! I’ll have to try to download it this weekend. I’ve got some fun videos of us at Big Bear. We might try to head up there this weekend with all of that snow!! It looks sooooooo beautiful! I’ll bring the video if we do go. Christopher has been dying to teach me how to snowboard and I’m so game for it! This will be good!!!!!!!!
For now, stay dry California! This weather is CRAZY!!!!!!!!
Peace, Love and Chicken Soup!!
I have no idea what that means but my friend Charles always says something like that!
Michelle

update!

Well, I was going to put another update up but the rain just started POURING again! It’s freaking me out so I’ll post something later. I don’t want my computer to crash! So just watch this video until I get a chance to do another post! Bizarre video, I know but it’s from a great scene in Twilight! Check it out! Super fun song to workout to!!!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xsp3_a-PMTw

I had my best run ever!!!!

I’m super excited today, I had my longest run ever today!! I’m telling you, running along the beach is my favorite place ever to run! You forget about any pain, forget about how long you are going, you just take it all in and it’s awesome!
So today for us 1/2 marathoners, we were supposed to run for 2 straight hours, which I have done before. But, Valli took us on a different trail in San Clemente. Ok, just for the record, I have no idea how she expected us to run that entire distance in 2 hours! Valli, not all of us can run at your pace!!!
For Christmas, I finally got my Garmin GPS watch. I charged it and everything but forgot to set if at the start of my run! Dang! So, I only know my time, I don’t know my distance! I think it was just over 12 miles, but I’m not completely sure, maybe more. ***UPDATE*** Just found out from my Coach that I ran 13.5 miles today!!! Whoo Hoo!!!
So here was the route that we did. We started off in San Clemente at Pico then ran the opposite way of the trail. We ran all the way to the entrance of Doheney Beach and back! We wern’t done yet! When I got back to the start of the trail it was about an hour and 40 minutes but I still wanted to do the entire trail. So, I did! I figured I’m going to have to run this much in a few weeks for my actual race so I might as well keep going now.
During our run along Doheney Beach, out of nowhere comes Allen. Allen, Allen, Allen! He just cruised right past 3 of us that were running. He’s training for a full marathon (he’s done many) and had already been running for 2 straight hours, effortlessly I might say! So when I finally made it out onto the trail and decided in my mind that I was determined to go the distance, who do I see heading back? Allen! Super inspiring! So I looked at him in passing and I said “Allen, you’ve inspired me to do the whole trail”. He just looked at me with that sweet smile and said “GO!” That’s all that I needed to hear. Sometimes it’s just the little things that make all the difference.
When I was done I looked at my watched and I ran 2 hours and 35 minutes straight! Whew Hew!!!!!!! So much fun! It’s such a cool thing that my body can do that! Well, my body kind of can do that! I’m not walking too well right now!
I planned on walking around the San Clemente Market Place after but that was not going to happen! Once you stop running, the pain starts to set in! I just went down there and picked up some yummy squaw bread, got my Starbucks and got the heck home.
I got straight into my freezing ice cold pool and soaked my legs. Hurts like hell at first but it actually makes my legs feel so much better after. Thanks a bunch Robin for giving me that great tip! Really makes a difference.
I’m also super stoaked to say that on January 1st at 8:00 in the morning I signed up for Camp Pendeltons Mud Run!! I CAN’T WAIT!! It’s not until June 5th but sign ups open on Jan 1st. Guess what? On Jan 1st at 11:49 AM, the race SOLD OUT!!! I’m so thrilled that I got in on it! Also, this is the best part, Chris is doing it with me!!!! Oh, this is gonna be good!!!! There’s something very fun and twisted about competing with my husband in a mud race! I’m so excited that he’s doing it with me. Lorraine and I are also signing up for another mud run in April. It’s called the WARRIOR RACE! Ok, the name alone tells me that we are going to have a blast! Bring on the mud!!!!!!!!
I keep forgetting to bring my camera to the beach to take pics. It’s so beautiful in the morning. I’ll try to bring my camera next week. Stay tuned……
Michelle

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Everyone,
Just wanted to wish you all an amazing 2010! Wow, 2010, doesn’t that sound so weird? So much is going to happen for us in 2010. First, our son, Christopher will graduate High School! That sounds even more weird than 2010! I can’t believe it! Where did the time go?
Second, our daughter, Taylor, will graduate 6th grade. I hate that they are all growing up so quickly. At least Hailey will still be my little one.
I’m super excited to see all of the amazing things that Chris is going to do with his business this year. He just continues to impress the heck out of me and take great care of our family. I’m the luckiest woman to be married to him. I just love him so much!
As for me, I can’t wait to get this half marathon behind me! It’s been tough on my knees but it’s also such a great feeling knowing that I’m running 10 miles! Almost at my 13! That’s so awesome for me. Looking forward to doing many other competitions, mud runs, triathlons and whatever else I can sink my teeth into this year!
Happy New Year everyone! Be safe and I’ll see you all in 2010! Thank you all again for being such great friends. You all make my life that much sweeter!
Michelle

We survived another Christmas!

First, let’s start by saying that our group ran for 1 1/2 hours this morning in 41 degree weather! It was soooo cold out but we all had to work off all of that Christmas food. I for one ate WAY too much ham! I felt so gross this morning. I just don’t know how people eat like that all the time. It felt so great to run it all off this morning.
Well Christmas was great as usual. This year Chris and I stayed home and had Christmas by ourselves with just our kids. It was so nice actually. We pretty much stayed in our jammies all day. I actually woke up not feeling so great. I think I was just really super tired. We opened the gifts, ate breakfast and I fell back to sleep and slept until 4:00 in the evening! Chris said he checked on me several times and I was completely out! Didn’t even know he checked on me. I thought for sure I was coming down with something but after I woke up I felt great. I guess my body just needed the rest. Weird huh? I haven’t slept like that since I had the flu!
Just a couple of fun, quick things to share. The kids all got what they wanted this year. Christopher got his IPOD TOUCH. That thing freaks me out. The technology is amazing! I want one! Taylor finally got a cell phone. Oh no, a teenager is born and she’s only 11! Do you have any idea how many texts I have received from her since yesterday??? And Hailey got the one thing that she really wished for, a drum set! Oh no, it’s gonna get loud in here! It’s pretty cool actually. Also, I got Chris the FLIP Videocamera. As if I couldn’t get weirder, now I can start posting videos onto my blog & FB! I can’t wait to take that thing on vacations and to concerts. Chris and I are going to have so much fun with that. As for me, I finally got my GARMIN! Whew Hew!! Now I can keep track of everying. My running time, distance, calories, MPH, etc. It’s a very cool gadget that every run junkie has to have!
Of course we got a TON other gifts. Two months to shop for all of it, 4 hours to wrap it all up and 10 minutes to tear it all apart! It’s funny how we wait all year long for Christmas and it’s over so quickly.
It was just such a great, quiet Christmas with my awesome husband and sweet children. I am truely blessed to have such a great family to share my life with.
I hope all of you had the best Christmas ever!
By the way, if you were wondering what happened to our Christmas cards this year, I didn’t send mine out! I have NEVER done that before. With all that was going on with Christopher, I just didn’t get around to it. It’s not like any of you need one more picture of us! How many do I post on FB and on this BLOG????? Too many!

Christopher

Well, Christopher feels a whole lot better. The stint is working so far. All of the pain and other problems are gone for now. We still have no idea if we will be able to save the kidney. We won’t know until about mid January. Still praying that we can save it. By the way, I wanted to clarify this. Christopher’s doctors originally thought that we could do the surgery for the stint in January. That was our goal. We thought he could snowboard through Christmas break and then do the surgery in January. None of us had any idea how bad things really were and that he would end up in the ER! I just wanted to say that because I feel soooooo guilty that I went to see TRAIN 2 days before he was in the ER! Of course, I never in a million years would have gone had I known how sick he was. That guilt is killing me! Plus I don’t want all of you judgemental moms (don’t act like you wern’t) frowning on me! Hey, I know I would have been too! Anyway, so far, so good for Christopher. He’s really bumbed though that he is not able to snowboard this Christmas break. The doctors say no way that he can have any sort of trauma to his kidney while the stint is in there! Bummer huh? I feel so bad for him because all of his friends are all at the mountains and he’s home
Next season for sure!
I hope you all have a super great Merry Christmas and and an even better 2010!
God Bless you all and thank you for all of your prayers!
Michelle

Poor Bub :(

To say that life can change in an instant is so completely true! Friday night I was having a great time at another Train concert, Sunday night I was in the Emergency Room with our son Christopher! Talk about total highs and complete total lows!
Late sunday afternoon Christopher started getting bad side pains from his kidney. By about 9:00 at night he was vomiting from the pain. I called the doctor and they said bring him to the ER immediately. It was very scarey and as luck would have it, Chris was in Florida with his mom and dad!
Christopher and I went down to the ER and got checked in. They started him on an I.V. and pain killers immediately. They wanted to give him a shot of something that was 10 TIMES stronger than Morphine!! Thank God that I asked what they were about to inject into him! I told them no way in hell were they going to put that into my son. So she ony put 1/4 of it in and it knocked him out. I can’t imagine what it would have done if she would have done it full strength. I swear I just kept thinking about Michael Jackson and was so glad that I questioned her. A mom’s instinct is never wrong!
The problem with all of the drugs that they kept giving him was that they would make him throw up. So from Sunday night until Monday at 6:00pm they just kept giving him meds, he would throw them up, give meds, throw up. Even the stuff that is supposed to make him not throw up would make the poor kid throw up. It was so sad to see him go through all of that.
Finally at 6:00 on Monday night they got him into surgery. The doctor said that the blockage was worse than they thought. They could couldn’t get the stint into the blocked tube, it was that badly closed off. They had to first put a baloon into the tube to unblock it and then put the stint in.
The doctor said that he has a good chance of losing that kidney, but we are giving it a shot. The stint will remain in for 1 month and then if the kidney responds to the stint they will repair the tube. If it doesn’t, they have to remove the kidney. Either way, Christopher will have to have one more surgery in about a month and it will be a lot more involved than this one.
I just wanted to update everyone. We’ve received many calls and messages on his update. He’s home now recovering. He says he feel so much better because he doesn’t have the pain anymore. He has pain from the surgery and from the stint being in but that should subside in a few days.
I’ll keep you all posted. I’m completely drained. It’s a lot to handle seeing your kid go through so much. I just can’t believe what a bizarre weekend this was. I never in a million years would have gone to the concert had I known what Sunday was going to bring us. I just keep beating myself up for not getting him in sooner but knowone, including the doctor knew that it was that bad. I’m just glad everything went well and that he’s back home safe and sound where he belongs.
Thank you Steph and Tricia for helping us with the girls. Don’t know what I would have done without you guys.
Michelle

Christopher

Thank you all for all of your calls & messages about what’s going on with Christopher. Here’s the jist of what’s going on. We have a minor surgery scheduled for this monday. He is having a procedure done to hopefully try to unclog a blockage in one of his kidneys that is not functioning properly. In a month from then we will take another look at the kidney and see if it has improved. We are praying that it does because he’s young and strong. At that point they will either fix the blockage in the kidney or remove it if it has not improved.
The good news is that it’s not life threatening. The bad news is that he could lose one of his kidneys. He’s pretty bumbed about that, obviously.
I just feel so bad for him. He’s such a GREAT kid. He worked so hard all summer to buy some pretty cool snow boarding stuff and now snow boarding is definately on hold. The doctor said he can resume it fairly quickly. Once he has the bigger operation done though he won’t be able to snow board for a while.
It’s funny what’s important to kids. I’m just happy that he’ll be ok.
I’ll keep everyone posted. I’ll probably post a short message on FB on Monday to let you know how the first round went.
Please pray that the doctors are able to save his kidney.
Thanks for your thought & prayers,
Michelle