The "Farm"

I haven't written as much about our garden as I usually do, but that plot of dirt is taking up a lot of our time!  We had 2 gardens this year.....our home garden and our plot at the church garden.  We only planted "large" things at the church garden....corn, pumpkins, cucumbers, watermelon and cantelope.  We kept all the "high use" items at home.

We've been enjoying the fruit of our harvest A LOT!  Many nights for dinner we have green beans, corn and watermelon for dinner.  AND no one complains.  In fact, they are silent...quickly snarfing down their dinners.

We are in the thick of harvesting raspberries right now.  We had so many this week, I made my first raspberry pie.  The pie tin was licked clean by my son (I didn't even have time to take a picture of the pie, they ate it so fast).  I bottle my first batch of spaghetti sauce last week.  Mmmmmm......

Buckets of green beans, tomatoes, and a bushel of carrots!

Kids shucking 50 ears of corn from our garden

Corn and green bean dinner....a summer favorite!

I hope I don't look like this....

I really hope I don't look this bad when I finish my first marathon!

I need to know why

I watched this video today:

http://www.stgeorgemarathon.com/

I cried.  I am an emotional basket-case when it comes to running motivation.  I love to see people let their "inner beast" break through and put MIND over BODY.  It is hard to go to that place.  Scary.  Painful.  Sometimes dark.

After watching this video, I had a good long "think" about WHY I am wanting to run 26 miles and 385 yards.  I need a concrete reason.

20 miles certainly was ugly.  I'm still experiencing the carnage from that Saturday morning.  I can't imagine what 6 more miles is going to be like.

I've spent 5 mornings a week (90% of those mornings started at 5:00am) running alone...in the dark since January (except for my Saturday long runs which include my running pals).  I've felt like a zombie during the day because I'm so tired.  I ache like a person with chronic arthritis.

I've spent countless hours at the chiropractor and on the massage table getting things "worked out". 

I've spent too much money on running shoes, compression socks, foam rollers, babysitters, and other gadgets (which by the way are all helpful!).

I've run 886.13 miles (as of the writing of the post) since January 1, 2011.

My family has spent every Saturday morning supporting their Mom.  Tim has been wifeless for the most part of Saturdays for months (whether it is running or recovering from the run...aka a BIG LONG NAP).

So WHY?  I need to have this figured out, so when it is time to dig in that deep dark hole of will power I have a reason.  A purpose.  A need to put one foot in front of the other.

One of my favorite sayings is "I can do hard things".

That is why I am running a marathon.

26.2 is hard.

It requires MIND over BODY for many miles.  Hours.

I'm going to write it on my arm on race day.

I CAN DO HARD THINGS
I CAN DO HARD THINGS
I CAN DO HARD THINGS

It may be ugly and take a long time, but I run 26.2!

Sunbeam

Peachy started preschool.  She is excited to finally go to school like the big kids.

She was also a "Sunbeam" in our church rodeo parade.  She was quite excited to ride on a float!

She's wearing little "sunbeam" hat!

Lessons from 20

First, I am finally acknowledging that I am running my first marathon. 

For the longest time, I’ve been telling myself (and others) that I “have a marathon race number” and we’ll see how my legs hold up – not really committing.  I’ve been nervous about getting injured or just not being able to handle the training. 

I’ve been training for my marathon, but I think I am to the point that I can admit

 I. Am. Running. A. Marathon. 

St George Marathon in October.  My very first 26.2 miles.  I’ve been to lots of marathons and can “kinda talk the marathon lingo”.  But in 5 shorts weeks, I will be wearing that “finishers” t-shirt and sporting the medal.

Today marked my FIRST 20-miler training run for my upcoming marathon. 

I’ve been thinking about it a lot.  I’ve been reading up on tips for long runs.  My dear running bud hunted me down last night at our Ward Hoedown to bring me a cookie “for good luck on you first 20 miler”.  She totally understood my nervousness and I was so grateful for her sweet gesture!  Plus the cookie was divine!

I’ve run 17 miles and many short miles, but this is the farthest I’ve been run.  There were crazy logistics to running this morning.  We were having our Ward Rodeo, so I needed to be finished by 7:00am.  AND my running pals ran a marathon last weekend, so they needed to run shorter today.

So at 3:20am I rolled out of bed, changed into my running clothes and headed out for 8 miles before I caught up with my group.  It was already very warm, humid, and very dark.  I charged up 4 miles, stopped and watered/gu’ed up and charged back 4 miles.

My dear running friends met me at 5:00am.  We headed out for 12 more miles.  Running with friends is absolutely essential when training for a marathon.  I’ve gotten up at crazy hours and driven to crazy places just to be with a pal.  It is that important!

Immediately after we started, I started to feel pukie.  Ugh….last weekends race is still near and dear and I didn’t want 12 miles of the pukes.  I could tell I was starting to slow down.  Self doubt and weakness crept in.  “There is NO way I am going to be able to run 20 miles much less a marathon”.  This is the part, where my dear friends taught me about kindness.  While I struggled for 3 miles (and when I say struggled…well …..it was ugly), my dear friends showed me endless encouragement. 

I think while running poorly, sometimes we are stripped of our pride and any “fronts/barriers” we put up.  We become raw and all insecurities shine through.  The great thing is that “true” running friends don’t care.  They want to help and carry you through your rough patch.  I will forever be grateful for my pals “carrying” me through a few bad miles (and all the other miles too).

During this time, I realized AGAIN how much I have to learn about running.  My dear friends taught me gently and kindly about hydration, fueling, the importance of rest days and that I’m not wonder woman!

My mile 14, I was feeling much better and started running at a normal speed.  We were getting short on time and I needed to get home to help with Rodeo stuff.  But when we finished we would still be short on miles.  We decided to run the Ward Rodeo 5k for the final 3 miles. We made it back to my house, jumped in the car and drove to the start. 

We got there just in time.  It was a great distraction to run with 30 other runners.  I wasn’t running at rocket speed, but I felt good and had controlled breathing.  I have no idea what my time was (and I don’t really care)!

I hugged my dear friends goodbye knowing they will never understand HOW much I appreciate them and just being there today.

The Rodeo had a kids 1K run.  So I joined ran with Carter and Abby.  Carter took off with his buddies.  I finally caught up with Abby (I was still running slow!!).  We held hands and ran through the finish.  It was wonderful to be with my girl!