Honesty

Sometimes you just have to be honest with yourself. I love to cook and eat and bake and eat. I discovered last weekend that one of the many reasons why I've been feeling miserable is that I don't have the time to cook and bake, and somehow being in the kitchen and cooking really relaxes me.

Last weekend I asked Scott if he would build me a veggie garden, for the past two years I've been using pots and we really have plenty of space for one, we just haven't ever taken the time to build one, I didn't know he was going to get to work so quickly.

Somehow with Spring finally having arrived and a veggie garden planted and with full citrus in the yard I became very inspired to find my happy place in the kitchen once again. It started with tackling the huge amount of meyer lemons we have. Mint lemonade, I may need to make more today because we have gone through almost the entire batch. Good thing I have plenty of lemons!

Not sure why this is sideways, can't seem to fix it, but you get the idea

Today I stopped by OSH to pick up more veggies for the garden, we already have tomatoes, bell peppers, chili's, zucchini, cucumbers and corn, so I picked up celery, onions and carrot seeds. Excited for when I can cook with all of this stuff. After my stop at OSH, I headed to the farmers market to pick up some fresh veggies and to the store to finish up with what I needed for the week.

As soon as I got home I got started on my day of baking and cooking. First on the menu was blueberry scones. These guys used two lemons worth of zest and juice, a huge accomplishment when you have so many lemons to use, Not sure how you can keep blueberries from turning your dough purple, Sydney gave these the stink eye when she came home, guess she won't be eating any of these.

For Christmas Scott got me a book called the Boozy Baker. Pretty self explanatory. I glanced through pretty quickly and saw Double Limoncello Poppyseed Cookies, score! Not only do I have lemons but I also have lots of Limoncello since I make it every year with our bounty of lemons. These suckers are good.

After being in the kitchen all morning I realize I'm pretty hungry. So it's time for a Caprese Sandwich.

I'm going to take a little break to plant the rest of my veggies in the garden before I start dinner which is Paula Dean's Oven Fried Chicken with mashed potatoes and spring mix green salad.

Really in my happy place today.

Fight for Air Climb

I would say that if you are going to climb 52 flights of stairs, training would be a smart thing to do. My biggest mistake was I started training too early and tried to figure out a way to train for a stair climb and a 10k which turned out to not be such a brilliant idea. I basically overwhelmed myself and ended up not really training for the climb.

On the bright side, I still made it up the 52 flights of stairs, even if I didn't meet my goal time. We had a wave time of 10am and I'll admit even though this was my employer's event, it was a little unorganized. I didn't hear anyone calling out wave times or telling us when to head down to the concourse area. I think we just decided as a group that now was a good time to get in line. The line was long and it had the atmosphere of standing in line for a ride at Disneyland, but somehow I knew it wouldn't be as much fun. Having never done this event before we had no idea how long it would actually take us to wind around the actual stairwell. After what seemed like forever we finally got close. Climbers were sent off in 8 second increments so as not to crowd the stairwell. I got the go ahead and found myself flustered as I crossed the mat and was trying to get my heart rate monitor to start, I had to push it like 4 times before I even got to the first stair after crossing the mat. Just like a run, there is this air of excitement and all of a sudden I realized that I needed to get going! As I ran up the first flight of stairs it was pretty evident that running up the stairs was not going to be an option.  My lungs and legs were burning and as I looked up realized I was only at the 3rd floor. Okay, this is going to be tougher than I anticipated.

Aid stations were set up every 7 floors. For safety purposes water is not allowed in the actual stairwell, so you have to exit the stairwell to get to water. We had been told there would be water at the plaza level before the climb, but there was no water to be found anywhere, so by the time I got floor 7 I was pretty parched. After this it was pretty obvious that I would need to stop at every aid station for water and slow my heart rate down.

As you can imagine, there are not a lot of sites in the stairwell of the B of A building, but every floor felt like a milestone.

I would pass people and then stop at an aid station and have to pass them again. Sure would have been nice if I had been able to carry my hydration pack, but I get it, slippery floors would be really, really bad.  When we reached floor 50, I wanted to scream out with joy! I held back and slowed down long enough for the photog to take my photo. As we came out of the stairwell and crossed the timing mat, there were lots of volunteers ringing cow bells and cheering us on, it just felt so good to be done. The really nice part was that in addition to a bottle of Gatorade I was also handed a hand towel, wow, if only I was handed one of those at the end of every race!

It took me 21:46 to climb 52 stairs, way over my original goal, but despite the fact that I wasn't feeling great that morning, I still got it done. And for my efforts was rewarded with this fabulous view.

What happened to March?

The past two weeks have been rough. Once I returned from San Diego it was all training, running and stair climbing and then someone whacked me upside the side of my head with a case of tummy troubles. No doubt the result of me new and is more stressful than it needs to be job. Luckily, test results came back today and the c-diff is not rearing it's ugly head again. Process of elimination probably means ulcer, the meds the doc gave me seem to be helping. Helping enough that I was actually able to get my 3.5 mile run in yesterday in comparison to last weeks no running at all.

While I'm not as prepared for Saturday's 52 flights of stair climbing as I had hoped to be, I know I'll get it done, it just may not be as fast as I had hoped. But let's be honest, it is my first stair climb, so whatever I do, it will be a PR. 

Finish Chelsea's Run

Okay, so maybe I didn't need to get to Balboa Park at 6am. The race was to start at 7:30am sharp and I knew they were expecting at least 3000 runners, I was hoping to avoid long lines to pick up my bib. I must admit that the hotel shuttle driver looked at me a little odd when I arrived in the lobby at 5:45am to go to Balboa. Needless to say, it was still dark when I got out of the van and I'm pretty sure I was the 1st person to pick up my bib. The cool thing about being there that early is the chalk artists were finishing up the huge sunflower at the start line.

The sunflower was Chelsea's favorite flower.

I must say this was a very well organized event. You could opt to be timed or not timed. If you opted to be chip timed you had a blue bib and were directed to the front. All other participants had a white bib and were told to line up behind people with blue bibs, so simple, but brilliant. We were directed to line up at 7am as they promised a 7:30am start, I'm sure a prompt start had to due with their permits. This is sort of a Where's Waldo shot, but I'm in it, I have a light teal headband on, can you spot me???

An amazing 5000+ people showed up for this inaugural event. As an event planner I can only imagine in my wildest dreams having 5000 people show up to my event, let alone my first one! And if you have ever wondered what 5000+ people look like, well here you go.

The King's moved out of state after Chelsea's death. But Brent, Kelly and Tyler all ran the race. Kelly actually trained for the run and I know Chelsea would have been so proud of her Mom.

Before I knew it, we were off. The magnitude of the event was just huge and very emotional. All along the route were Chelsea's favorite inspirational quotes, it was difficult to not push hard based on the overwhelming amount of inspiration on the route. I looked down and realized my heart rate monitor was not registering, and I think there is no way to not look a little odd when you lick your finger and pull your shirt up to try and get the sensors to work on your heart rate strap, it didn't work, so I figured I was going to have to wing it and just try to find a nice pace. When we reached the 1 mile mark they were calling out times and I passed right at 10 minutes, I was surprised to say the least, I'm a slow runner, so it was nice to know I had a good first mile. the course was beautiful, I tried to grab a photo, but it doesn't do much justice to how gorgeous it was.

We actually got to run on the freeway. I saw a Chippy out there as we entered the 163. I was very tempted to yell a "HuRah" as I ran past, but he was in his patrol car and I figured it would be wasted. Kind of cool to run on the freeway. We ran down this amazing hill and I must say it was fast and fun, so fast that someone behind me actually fell down it, she was fine. As we got to the bottom of the hill we hit the 2 mile mark and once again they were calling out times. As I passed she called out 20:33. Holy crap, I thought, I might actually be able to PR. And then I quickly thought of the fun hill I had just run down and realized that we would have to go back up, okay, maybe no PR for me today. We passed through the back side of some mountain and it was nice and cool and shady back there. And then I saw it, the hill I would have to get up. Holy crap, once again. The entire time I kept pushing thinking of Chelsea and how she wouldn't give up, her spirit kept me moving through out most of the race. But that hill, I slowed to a walk when I felt like my heart rate was too high and my lungs were burning. I looked around and there was no one around me running. I've tried to determine the elevation of said hill, but I'm ending up with somewhere between 85 and 150 feet of gain in .33 miles. We all know that math is not my strong point so lets just say it was painful. We had almost reached the top when we hit the 3 mile mark. Okay, .10 miles I can run. As I ran to cross the finish line, I found myself once again emotional with the magnitude of the day. While it was a day of celebration of Chelsea's life you couldn't help but think of the tragedy that occurred to bring us all together.

The shining light in all of this is to witness and be part of what a community can do when they band together, the power of the people truly is amazing. I was so proud to be part of this amazing day and I hope to make it back to San Diego every year to be part of Finish Chelsea's Run.

Official Time: 33:36 76/123 in my age group (of the folks that were timed anyway :))

Remembering Chelsea

Today marks the day of my return to running. I haven't run in over 2 weeks due to the stomach flu and how it stuck around for an extra week after I thought I had recovered. On the plate today is 2 miles, just to ease back into things and make sure I still have legs and lungs worthy of actually running.

Friday I head out to San Diego to race in the Inaugural Finish Chelsea's Run. I am thrilled to be taking part in such a beautiful way to remember and honor Chelsea King. For those of you that don't know, Chelsea King was a bright 17 year old who embraced life to its fullest. Chelsea loved to run and on February 25th last year headed out on a training run where she fell victim to a horrible crime. As a Mother, it's completely unimaginable to even think of losing a child, it's difficult even for me a year later to try and process what happened to Chelsea. I worked with Chelsea's Dad at World Savings/Wachovia and their loss and their courage to fight each and every day to make sure our children are safe is inspiring. Passed in a record six months Chelsea's Law creates a true one-strike penalty for violent sexual offenders who target children. Chelsea's Light Foundation is working on passing Chelsea's Law in additional states.

A few weeks after Chelsea's death, several of her friends decided to go and finish her run to remember her. Word quickly spread and 3500 turned out to finish Chelsea's run. This year marks the first Inaugural Finish Chelsea's Run. Money raised from this event will go towards the Sunflower Scholarship Fund. The Scholarships will be awarded to teens who embrace everything that was important to Chelsea, including her "service over self" motto.

I run for Chelsea on Saturday.

What am I doing?

Since it seems that in order for me to accomplish any physical activity I need a plan, I've been working on a plan. In two weeks I will start my 10k training plan. I had hoped there would be enough time in between the stair climb and my 10k that I could start training for the 10k after the stair climb leaving a few weeks to just focus on climbing 52 flights of stair. However, when I looked at the calendar today, I realized that wasn't possible. The new plan is to incorporate my stair climbing on cross training days of the 10k program and hope that works well for me. My Training Peaks calendar is loaded and ready to start training and hopefully in the next two weeks I can practice the general rhythm of the training days and be ready to rock and roll after I return from San Diego and the Finish Chelsea's Run.

In more of an effort to embrace my inner runner I recently purchased a display for my race medals. I saw these at the expo is Las Vegas but their booth was jam packed and I couldn't get anywhere near it, wasn't like I had room to fit it in my suitcase anyway. I recently bit the bullet and ordered one. Scott was kind enough to hang the hardware for me and I got to placing my medals on the display. I'm really happy with it and it's a nice reminder of my accomplishments and to keep at it. Don't tell Sydney but I ordered her the exact same one in pink for her birthday since she has a nice collection of her own race medals accumulating.

Trying to find a routine

The week started off god with two short runs on Monday and Tuesday along the Alameda Shoreline. Although, what I realized on Monday was that I am not condition to run in warm weather at all. I ran 1.15 miles to map out a possible walk route for my event in October, it was about 70 degree's out, and that short run just about wiped me out. I started thinking I may be in trouble in three weeks when I fly to San Diego for the Inaugural Finish Chelsea's Run 5k.  I'm guessing it will be warm in San Diego and I'm thinking I might just melt since I have become accustomed to running in the cold and rain.

Since I was not able to get in any other workouts this week until today and since rain is on the horizon for next week, I thought today might be my only chance to get some warm weather running in before San Diego. Wrong, it was 38 degree's when I reached Moraga Commons and the Lafayette-Moraga Regional trail. The 1st mile of the trail is mostly in the shade and really very cold. My lungs immediately started to protest the cold and this little tickle of a cough that I have had almost all winter started to be more productive. All of a sudden my thought completely shut down and made it nearly impossible to swallow or to breathe. I'm starting to wonder how I ever 13 miles. Finally on my turn around I'm starting to feel somewhat better but still not awesome. And just as I'm starting to realize that I am warming up and my throat is opening up a bit I realize I only 1/2 mile a to go and I'm entering the densely tree covered portion of the trail and the temperature drops.

Not exactly the run I had hoped for today, but I have a million things to do today and I had to get it done early, otherwise I would have found an excuse to not get it done. And now, of course, it's a lovely 70 degree's.