Grandma, What Big Ears You Have!

Actually, I have the opposite problem as Little Red Riding Hood's "Grandma."  My ears seem to be unusually small...

I recently purchased a new running earbud from www.onegoodearbud.com - a wraparound style.  I tried it on when it arrived, and noticed that the stereo part of the bud didn't fit well into my ear, and the wraparound plastic earpiece was loose.  Thursday night I decided to try to run with it anyway and see how it did.  I made it two miles, fiddling with it the whole time trying to seat it correctly, before it eventually fell out, and, frustrated, I had to finish without music.

I should have realized that I wouldn't be able to use a standard earbud after all the trouble I had finding my current pair (I eventually had to buy a set with multiple size eartip and wraparound attachments and use the smallest size for both).  For this morning's long run, I switched back to my current pair and loved how they felt - didn't even notice they were in, as usual.

I don't want to discourage anyone else from trying out the onegoodearbud style - it's just not working for me.  But I really like the idea of the onegoodearbud concept - so what's a girl to do?  I'm going to get the non-wraparound style and give that one a try.  I'm hoping that the soft rubber eartip will be smaller, or if it's not, maybe I can switch out the smaller eartip I have on my current pair for the new one.  I'll let y'all know how it goes!

Today's stats:

• 10 minute walking warm-up
• 5.5 mi run/walk; 1:10:44 min; 12:52min/mi avg pace
• Hit the 100 mile mark for 2011 today!  Later than I'd hoped, but a good milestone, none the less!

Notice Anything Different?

***Note: This is the post I originally planned for Tuesday, March 15th, before life happened.***

Take a glance around the page today - notice anything different from the last time you were here?  Check out the title block.  See it?  That's right.  I have made a decision - I registered for the 2012 Walt Disney World Marathon!  No, you didn't misread that.  Not the Half, the Marathon.  Wow...and...oh geez!

After this year's Half, I had some serious envy of my Dad's new Mickey Medal.  And, after two months of much soul-searching, and many, many, MANY discussions with loved ones and friends, I decided to go for it.  I still can't quite believe I'm saying this, let alone announcing it publicly, but here goes...I've made the commitment to register and train for the Marathon next year.  Mickey medal, here I come!

So, on Sunday, January 8, 2012, at 5:30am, I will be lined up with my Dad and best friend on a back road outside Epcot, ready to start on a 26.2 mile journey.  And I'm so excited, I'm about to burst!

I'm looking forward to pushing myself further and further in my training (someone please remind me to come back and read this post later this fall when I'm having second thoughts and doubts).  And I really, really, want to stand in front of Cinderella's Castle with that Mickey Medal around my neck - I have felt so good after finishing the two WDW Halves that I can't imagine the sense of accomplishment that's going to come from completing the Marathon!

But, in order to get there, I have to finish training for and run the Dallas RnR Half Relay, the San Francisco Half, and the Wine&Dine Half.  Here's to hoping that the next 10 months are (relatively) injury-free, productive, and fun!!!

Today's stats:

• 10 min warm-up walk
• 3 mi run; 0:38:11 min; 12:44min/mi avg pace

Not the Post I Had Planned....

I try not to make non-running or non-Disney posts, but tonight's different, and this is not going to be the post I had planned.  Last night I was so excited about registration for the 2012 WDW Marathon Weekend opening today that I pre-wrote tonight's post - in which I expounded on the excitement of registering for yet another Disney race.

However, life, as usual, didn't go as expected.  Meet my older cat, Sophie:

Sophie has lost an awful lot of weight recently.  She'd had a bout of sickness a few weeks ago, but seemed to have recovered.  Then the dramatic weight loss started - and reached the point where it couldn't be ignored (not that I was ignoring it - I was very aware of it, just in denial, I think).  So I made a vet appointment for her.  As we sat in the examination room this morning, it finally hit me just how sick she could be, and I lost it - bring on the tears!  The vet couldn't have been better - she explained that she'd felt a mass in Sophie's stomach and wanted to take x-rays and do some bloodwork.  The x-rays showed a tumor in her g.i. tract...meaning that the only option is surgery.  However, surgery at her age, and in her condition, only has about a 40% survival rate, will likely be very painful, and probably won't completely fix the problem.  Wow.  Talk about a blow.

We're waiting for the bloodwork results to come back tomorrow before seriously discussing our options and where to go from here, but I'm afraid that the bottom line is that I'm going to lose my "Sophie-cat" (as I sometimes call her) waaaaay sooner than I ever thought.  I adopted Sophie as a kitten the summer between my freshman and sophomore years in college, and she'll be 11 in April.  She has been through so much with me, including multiple moves throughout college for co-op assignments, traipsing halfway across the country when we moved to Florida, adopting our other cat, Emma, eventually moving back to Texas, and finally moving into our current house.  She supports my running (sits on her shelf and watches me on the treadmill), and even got into the Disney spirit for me one Halloween:

It has been a really rough day.  I was supposed to run 5 miles tonight, but all I wanted to do was come home and cuddle with Sophie - so I did - no miles.  I'll post what was supposed to be today's "super-excited about registering for Disney" post tomorrow, but for tonight, I'm just sad and want to go to bed, with Sophie close by.

Leaping Leprechauns!

Wow, it has been a busy, busy, week.  I never did manage to get any of my normal runs in during the week, so my first chance to move my legs in any running-type-fashion was with my family and friends in this Saturday's Leaping Leprechauns 5K & 15K.  I only did the 5K, but my dad and my friend Jessica did the 15K.  I ended up having a great time, especially considering this was my first run in a week; Jessica was the 2nd overall female finisher, and my dad finished 2nd in his age group - they are both like Speedy Gonzales compared to me!  We had a great time running our respective races, and wore lots of green with some goofy St. Patrick's Day accessories: 

 Even Jessica's hubby and kids got in the St. Patty's Day spirit and dressed up:

  

Saturday's Race Stats (per Garmin):

• 5K (3.14mi); 0:37:45 min; 12:01 min/mi avg page
• A NEW P.R. for the 5K for me!!!