A thank you...

Garmin is awesome.

I got a Forerunner 305 last year for Christmas, which I have loved to PIECES all year long. Haven't tracked as many miles as I would've liked since I spent 2.5 months recovering from a strained MCL, but hey... it's still a great little tool. Sadly, it started developing some kinks last week. The mode button got finicky, then pooped out altogether. I contacted Garmin with little hope for help (since I'd gotten it refurbished through an ebay seller) and ended up pleasantly surprised. All I had to do was mail it in, and they'd mail me a replacement within about 2 weeks at no cost.

I went on one last run with it last Saturday morning, packed it up, sent it off and commenced mile-tracking-gadget withdrawal. I figured I'd be Garmin-less til after next week's travels and settled back into my old ways of mapping & riding routes...

As you can imagine, I was delighted when I arrived home today to a bulging doormat. Astonishingly fast turnaround, considering that Monday was a postal holiday. Yay for excellent customer service & a quick return!

THANK YOU, GARMIN!!!!

I am one happy runner.

J. & Silent Liz

Oh, goodness... I haven't watched any of those movies in years. Maybe I should remedy that this weekend while Jeromie's away at a weekend class. :-)

I admit, I've been silent around here lately. Some weeks the ol' blog is just not at the top of my priority list or, alternatively, I have nothing of substance to say. Sometimes I just feel like being quiet, and I'm alright with that.

The last few weeks have been a jumble. A combination of under-the-weather or injured, stressed, and busy has dominated Casa del Rand, but we're alive.

We're alive, and actually laughing quite a bit. :-) Sometimes we get so busy that we forget how to be light-hearted with each other. No more of that... my newfound goal for this next year is to find plenty of (healthy) opportunities to laugh and smile and invite others to do the same. I discovered it in the middle of last night's Fishes meeting, but it makes sense in hindsight... I've become quite the fan of "comic interludes" lately.

Aside from laughing, meetings, paper-writing and internship, I've finally hit a good pattern for training. Like I mentioned a few posts back, I'm training for the CO Bike MS ride in June. I'm also hoping to run the Denver Marathon in October. Right now, barring injury, they both look doable. Either way, it's so good to get out and move around.

Anyway... just felt like checking in.

Got anything to add to my barrel of laughs?

Looking back

Last year around this time, I did a little bit of a year-in-review complete with a handful of my dids and didn'ts for 2008. Don't have much of a review for this year... for the most part, it seems to have been utterly consumed by school. As I look back, the highlights of this year were mostly little things.

... an hour here or there in the company of a friend
... a breath of fresh air, by bike or foot
... recognition of a few unexpected fellow travellers
... the opportunity to show love through creativity
... the rhythms of liturgy
... the hard questions of messy ministry
... little gestures of love & commitment from my amazing husband
... God's steady invitation to become awake and alive with him

My desires for this coming year haven't really changed...

I want to listen well.
I want to love well.
I want to work hard.
I want to play hard.
I want to rest when I rest.
I want to give... life, encouragement, time, money, creativity.
I want to trust... God, my husband, my friends, myself.

And this year, I want to run a marathon. :-)

toot toot.

So... one Amy Sawyer has demanded a "randish" blog post about the half, and she shall get it, unfortunately sans photos.

This past Sunday morning, Jeromie & I downright conquered the Denver Half-Marathon. I say conquered because we both had a pretty bum few weeks leading up to it. I got sick. Jer got busy. We both felt beat AND we made the (possible) mistake of eating PIZZA as race-fuel. Not even delicious BlackJack's BBQ Chicken! Not even McKinner's many delicious awesomes! Dominoes, I tell you! We ate Dominoes!

With good friends, of course.

But that still does not make up for the fact that pizza is not always runner-friendly the night before a race/run/event/whatever.

That said, we were both planning to just settle for finishing.

So. The Half. I will definitely be doing another one, and hopefully another after that.

Looking back on the morning, the Denver course was an excellent place to attempt my first actual half-marathon. I'd run the distance many times in high school, just to get away from life, but I hadn't ever done a formal half-marathon, and I hadn't run that far in YEARS (like 10 of them). The course was fairly flat (except for fun little hill early on, and another one between miles 9 & 10 in the Cheeseman Park area), the race was not huge participant-wise, and the weather turned out to be amazing.

We took the light rail into downtown so we wouldn't have to worry about parking, and managed to get to the Civic Center Park (starting line area) by about 6:30am. As is almost always the case before a race, we ended up spending most of our time before the start waiting in the lines for the restrooms. Bah. Anyway... we managed to get through the lines, check our gear bags, and make it to somewhere near our pace-marker by a few minutes before the start. Of course, at that point I realized I'd forgotten my little snack-gel thingies, but oh well. I think it took about 4-5 minutes to get to the actual starting line after the race began, and that time basically served as my warm-up. Next time... I'll get there earlier.

We'd agreed the night before to just run our own paces, so we parted ways within the first quarter mile. I spent the first mile or two weeding my way through the crowd and trying to feel out how my calves would behave for the day. I wasn't paying much attention at all to time or pace and thus missed hitting my watch until the 3 mile marker. After that, I hit my watch joyfully at every mile because I was that much closer to being done AND I was kind of interested to see what pace I had settled into.

I don't remember much about the running part itself except the silly, quirky thoughts & lovely "runner's high" that strike me on good days. I remember being utterly blown away as I approached City Park (somewhere in mile 5?) and saw the front-runners fly past in the opposite direction... they were several miles ahead of me and booking it. I remember cheering for the first & second women I noticed in that pack. I also remember getting passed at about that same time by a boy running a leg of the relay who looked like he was maybe not even ten. Oh yeah... and I remember loving the fact that I was running down the big fat middle of the road, with no worries about drastic camber or much of anything else!

Somewhere around mile 7, there was a station for grabbing GU, and I gladly grabbed one. My last experience with chocolate-flavored GU (about 10 years ago?) was NOT a good one, but I figured I'd shot my own self in the foot by forgetting my stuff and I was not about to risk crashing later. Surprisingly, whatever I grabbed was actually palatable... almost like chocolate frosting. So... I hung onto that for about 2 miles & ate it whenever I could see water up ahead.

Mile 11 was probably the hardest mile of the run... my knees were aching and my ears were doing this weird popping deal from the cold I had a few weeks back. At this point, I just decided that there was no quitting and no complaining and off I went.

Somewhere around Mile 12, the marathon and half-marathon courses parted ways. I knew that my internship site was just a block past the split, so I was maybe-just-a-little tempted to add a block to my run, but when it came down to it I was just glad to head for the finish.

The end was unremarkable, but at the same time SUCH a relief. My official time was 2:01:59, which works out to an average of 9:19 per mile. All I can say is that I was (and am still) pleasantly surprised.

Since Sunday morning, I have taken A LOT of ibuprofen. I've also cursed at the two flights of stairs that I must go down to leave the apartment. Today, I commuted in to campus on my bike (+ a few extra miles for good measure), and that was a HUGE help in taking the edge off the soreness in my quads and calves.

So... that was the half. I'm already plotting and scheming for running a whole in May - the Denver Colfax Marathon. I may even have a training partner! :-D


(P.S. The post title is because I wasn't planning on writing about this... it just felt a bit like tooting my own horn. I was going to let Jer do the posting, but he told me to write my own...)

Yeah, buddy...

Jeromie and I NAILED our long run this morning.

I was a bit nervous about it... I attempted 10 miles a few weeks ago & had to stop at 8 due to unforseen circumstances. Also, this is the first time in about 10 years that I've tried to run that far. It was Jeromie's first time ever.

We drove over to a local bike trail - the High Line Canal Trail - walked a little, stretched just briefly, and took off. We agreed yesterday that we'd think of the run as 5+5 (not 10!) and did just that.

A little giddy at mile 5, I decided to hit the "reset" button. :-) I told Jeromie good night, yanked on my right ear, and then started chattering about this crazy dream I'd had the night before... that I'd just run 5 miles, but coming from the other direction. Gosh, that would make for a tiring 5 mile run, wouldn't it... dreaming about it, then doing it. It was kind of fun to count the mile markers on the way back & think of it as only having run a mile, mile & a half, two...

Yeah, silly... I know.

Just over a month until the Denver 5+5+5k (and 10+10+10k).

I'm pretty sure we can nail that one too...

Challenges

As if life itself weren't a challenge enough sometimes!

I've been thinking about this past year... like most of the world seems to do when we get to the end of one. i've never been much of one to make *resolutions* per se, but i do have hopes and goals in general that i hope to achieve at some point.

Like this past year...
- I hoped to finally achieve my goal of running a half-marathon. Didn't.
- I hoped to knit a sweater. Did!
- I hoped to live in another state. Did!
- I hoped to become more of a bike commuter. Did!
- I hoped to get into seminary, start school, and do okay in it. Did, did, and hopefully did.
- I hoped to read a lot of books. Definitely did.
- I hoped to form deeper relationships with old and new friends. Pretty darn sure I did.
- I hoped to be more consistent in a lot of things. And I was, but not so much in those that I'd established as my priorities... it's hard to tell.

I want to listen well.
I want to love well.
I want to work hard.
I want to play hard.
I want to rest when I rest.
I want to give... life, encouragement, time, money, creativity.
I want to trust... God, my husband, friends, myself.

And I still want to run a half-marathon. :-)



...On a lighter note, we've got a challenge going here in the Rand family.

Rand Parents vs. ColoRands
Exercising Regularly (3x/wk)
We've got a little point system, a time frame, something to work for, and a little friendly rivalry. :-D

You'd think the Jer & I would have an advantage, but really we've been bad about doing any consistent and *real* exercise this past semester. I've maybe gotten out for longer than 15 minutes 1x/wk average in the past semester. Long time when I do, but... things don't even out that way.

It makes me happy though, because we all need to be moving around more regularly. And we all want to be able to do that together when we get together. :-D Anyone else want in??

* * * * * * *

P.S. I just whomped Jer & Jonathan in a game of Agricola. Who'da thunk?

Craaaaaaaazybusy.

I can't believe it's April. Contributing to the disbelief is the fact that no one pranked me on April Fools (phew.), which is a new concept for me. :-D Normally someone pulls at least *one* over on me. April looks like it will be quite a trip though... and May.

Potential Spring Shenanigans
- Cooper River 10k in Charleston (this Saturday!)
- Taxes. Taxes taxes taxes. (by April 15)
- Projects for DCF Film Festival & Gallery (now til then)
- DCF Film Festival & Gallery weekend (April 15?)
- Bookfair numero A (3rd week in April)
- Bookfair numero B (4th week in April)
- DCF Yard Sale & Silent Auction (May 3! Come out!!!)
- Bookfair numero C (in-store May 10 & probably HUGE)
- Sneaky-plan thing that might be unveiled in mid-may...
- Finishing & submitting Mars Hill application; going out for interview (May)
- Registering for classes (?!??!)
- Family trip to Montana (!!!!!)

I feel like I'm coming out of hibernation or something! :-) Hopefully I'll be able to carve out a little more time for sewing & knitting. Both have been neglected these past few weeks. :-\

Even in the face of a busy spring, these past few weeks have been good. Not a crazy woo-hoo(!) good, but good in a God-is-moving-and-i'm-not-being-blind kind of way. As always, He is faithful; He's been digging around in my heart and bringing me to a place where I can see and embrace Him & Life (with all its many facets) instead of retreating or hiding. Most of my life, I've been prone to that... to retreating & hiding.

So in response to Michael's request for a one-word update: WOO-HOO!!!! :-D

And that's because God is faithful.

A Nearly Perfect Evening

Today at work was a bit hectic, but the evening has been almost heavenly... and it's only getting better!

We've:

- run / walked on a crisp, cold evening
- come home with froze nozes and...
- made hot chocolate with peppermint sticks!
- listened to good music and laughed about how our iTunes has one of Phil Keaggy's acoustic albums labeled as EXPLICIT
- made delicious cake that involved some chocolate pudding
- made a yummy alfredo with mushrooms & spinach (2 favorites)

and then we:

- looked out the door to see a dusting of snow and more coming down!

Restlessness

Today, I've been plagued by a strange restlessness in which I find myself in constant motion, but not really getting anything done. There are plenty of things I want to be doing (knitting, sewing, reading) and plenty of things I should be doing (laundry, dishes), but I can't seem to settle into any of them.

Maybe running will help. :-)

Off I go.

I'm addicted

I'm addicted.

I am.

Not to caffeine. Not to drugs. Not even to knitting... I'm addicted to my fiddle!

It's a strange sensation. I've been practicing a lot over the past couple of days and thoroughly enjoying it... looking forward to playing it... so when I left the fiddle at home yesterday while we were in Clemson, I found myself missing it. Me, missing a musical instrument. Now that's weird. To me, at least.

I had a great lesson today too, so when I got back to the Open Book, I had to resist the urge to pull out the fiddle then and there and torture everyone with my not-so-great-yet playing. :-p For now, I'll restrain myself & just deafen Jeromie. :-)

To make things even better, I've been able to start running again lately with no pain in my foot, so I'm thrilled!


I've been really encouraged over the past week... and actually talking to God more, too. I'd found myself avoiding Him a lot, but much less so lately - and that relationship is what's given me the most hope. The fiddle & running are more like the icing on the cake. Not even the icing... God's the cake AND the icing... I guess everything else is just sprinkles. :-D



I'm also addicted to fall, I think, and all we got here was a tease!