Let’s Move our 4th Half Up a Week!

So we gave into twitter pressure – ahem, Heidi! 🙂  And instead of JUST running 22 miles this weekend we are going to run DRC Half plus 8.9 more miles! Whee!

source

So come Sunday we will be out at White Rock Lake getting in a good training run for White Rock Marathon in December!  Which is as of today THIRTY DAYS away! We might have just freaked out, then gotten all excited and then gone back to freaked out again typing that. 🙂   Both of us need to run this like it is one of our training runs so we can put in the extra mileage afterwards unless something changes between the typing of this post and the start of the half on Sunday morning.

Weather

Low:  56*

High: 70*

Wind:  9MPH

Precip.: 10%

I’m Not Moving to Holland, I’m Becoming a Holland

Pretty much every Thursday night since January 25, 2007 I’ve spent that week night hanging out with the same man. Last night we returned to the scene of our first date at BJ’s Brew House in Lewisville…

an actual picture from the night we met

But first we have got to back up just a little bit! Right now I’m in the middle of a self imposed yoga deadline. Ha I have to complete 150 yoga classes by October 31st and as of this morning I am at 148. 🙂 With that being said I informed Brent that I HAD to go to yoga after work before I could head over to his house for our usual Thursday night. Brent has been off from work all week doing projects around his house and making sure none of the vacation time he has saved up gets wasted, so when he told me he wanted us to go sit down and eat dinner I didn’t really think anything of it. Plus we had done a lot of grabbing to go food and eating at home lately, so it really all made perfect sense to me. I was also completely clueless when my awesome sister was trying to encourage me to repaint my finger nails Wednesday night, and I fully intended too but then sleep sounded way better. 🙂
When we started driving to BJ’s I was so confused because I thought that this other location was closer and made more sense to go to, but Brent just said “I thought we’d return to our old stomping grounds.” (The first few years of our relationship he lived in Lewisville hence that comment) We make to the restaurant and just as we are getting out of the car the rain picks up. Ha I take off running to the front door, and we find that it is completely packed. We ate dinner in the bar with the big screen TV on the Rangers game. At this point it’s the 4th inning and the game is so awesome I keep asking why we are leaving to go home and watch the rest. Once the 4th innning is over we take off, but don’t worry I insisted that we stop at Tom Thumb on the way home because I NEED to make some brownies for this weekend! We run the errand and make it back and I walk through the garage door to the kitchen first and immediately stop in my tracks. What is happening? There are candles, rose petals, roses and champagne….OH MY GOSH!!! I turn around and Brent is down on one knee asking me if I’ll marry him. I say “OH MY GOSH” at least five more times before finally telling him yes!

Us at the Rangers game in 2009 when Kinsler hit for a cycle (thought it was appropriate since they played last night)

We have some champagne and Brent tells me I should probably go ahead and call my mom to let her know. Since I’d already been texting her to let her know that Tom Thumb had the brownie mix we use for a cupcake recipe buy 1 get 1 free. 🙂 And from there begins the slew of text messages and phone calls. Somewhere in the middle of that he tells me the couple lies he had to tell me in the past week. The moments I had him worried like when I told him there was Thursday night coming up we wouldn’t be able to hangout because I had a White Rock Marathon Happy Hour I helped plan and needed to attend. Haha And to top everything else off, Brent and I had planned for months to go to College Station this weekend to see A&M play Mizzou, so we get to see a bunch of our friends!!

New Years Eve 2009

For those of you that do not know the Beth & Brent history – We both were born & raised here in Dallas. At one point when I was under the age of 6 years old we lived maybe five minutes away from each other. We both attended Texas A&M and made it out of there without ever meeting each other but have since learned of mutual friends and connections that we had there. And we both just happened to be in the same bar at the same time on January 19, 2007 and the rest is history!

We had just finished running the Dash Down Greenville 5k & changed into regular clothes for the St. Patty's Day Parade in 2008

I am sad that this weekend Teal won’t be down in College Station with me, but don’t worry Teal on a stick will be!! 🙂
I can’t get my work computer to upload pictures from my camera right now so I’ll add a few from last night in a bit if you want to check back! 🙂

20111028-133959.jpg

20111028-134120.jpg

Commuting by Foot

A month or so back after chatting with Lisa on twitter and learning she bikes for her work commute, I decided it would be cool if I ran home from work! So I immediately go to google maps to see just how many miles it is – 8. Perfect!

See my sister actually works in the same building as me just for a different company AND we live together! We can totally just ride into work together and when the end of the day comes I’ll hand over my purse and work clothes for her to take home!

I figured this would be an awesome way for me to get in one of my weekday lengthier runs aaannd then I forgot ALL about this idea! It’s either that OR I thought I had all the time in the world to make it more than an idea! 🙂 Until last Thursday I went for a short run around my office which I declared my scouting run. Yah, I learned I was totally wrong about there being sidewalks on the majority of the route because right by my office they’re kind of non-existent. Then I remembered Daylight Savings! When is that? Will that mess up my plan? If it does I’ll be so pissed AT myself! Oh good, it’s not until November 6th (if ya were wondering -now ya know!)

So anyways, last night was the night! And when I left my office I was the only person there so there would be no turning back. A run can be kind of different when if you don’t do it you won’t make it home. All day long I had the I’m running home from work – no big deal attitude – then when everyone was gone and it was time, I was nervous!

Had everything I needed - camelbak, Go Sport ID, my iphone and a house key

Nervous because one, I’d have to run under George Bush Tollroad and two, there are some sketch areas I’d be running through.

The run started off fine, I actually ran by my friend Kim as she was leaving a gas station! Then I found it hilarious when I was almost run into by another runner. She wasn’t paying attention until we were right up on each other. I was on the right side of the sidewalk – what else does one due to avoid being hit by another runner coming at you? I might have been a little freaked out when I ran by the dude with a tatt under each one of his eyes walking down the sidewalk towards me. I’ve decided the drivers who freak me out the most are the ones turning right that never actually look right and/or those turning who are looking at their phone so you’ll never know if they’ll see you in time.

I survived the sketch areas and believe it or not running under George Bush Tollroad really wasn’t bad at all. Throughout the entire 8 miles I hit most of the lights JUST at the right time!  There were two instances where I did a loop around a building to hopefully come back to the light when it was green and that worked.  Under George Bush I did one loop around all the pillars that hold it up and made it back just in time to make it across.  Right after that I was coming up on a small area where I not only ran out of sidewalk I also ran out of ground to run on – bridge.  Also, in case you are wondering why I am crazy to run through some sketchy areas, I felt it was fine because I was running during traffic times and at all times there would be cars on the road that could see me should someone try and kidnap me, steal my iphone, etc.

The two things I dislike about outdoor running are:

1. Having to stop because of lights as I really lose momentum and jogging in place does NOT do it for me!

2. Not knowing what kind of ground you’ll be running on if there’s a not sidewalk.  I don’t have to have a sidewalk, but it kills my feet if I’m ever running on a patch of grass that has a side incline.  Do you know what I mean? My left foot has had some slight pain underneath the big toe ever since I killed my feet in a pair of shoes in college and those side inclines just bring that pain back.

So at the end of the run was it much different than what I normally do when I got out running? No, not entirely, but I couldn’t exactly just stop and go home if hit a wall – I HAD to cover those 8 miles on my own.  Less than 2 miles of my whole route was an actual part of other runs I’ll go out and do, but it was something different and I’m glad I tried.  My dad and Bossman called me just as I was walking up to my front door to make sure I made it home ok.  Everything considering, I felt good during the whole run even when I was running up the hills! Happy running!

This probably isn’t the most exciting post, but it’s something I’m glad I did and probably not something I’m going to do regularly. 🙂

Do you have some sort of out of the ordinary running goal for yourself that you’d like to accomplish and just haven’t done it yet? What is it?  And how are you going to make sure you get it done?

Fill Me Up!

…with inspiration!  We were looking for  a dose of it today and decided to not be greedy and share some with YOU! 🙂

source

The third image is hard to read the fine print, but it says – starting is the hardest part, the rest will follow

Has there been a quote or image that’s been your inspiration lately? What is it?

Susan G. Komen 5k

 

So this Saturday brings our only true October race even though it feels like this has been one of the hardest running months thus far. We are in the midst of true marathon training as you know but we really wanted to take this chance to participate in a race that really means something to us! We will be participating in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure tomorrow at North Park Mall. We are especially excited about this chance to participate in another Komen race, because as you know, this cause has become near and dear to our hearts given our efforts to raise money in honor of Team Cindy and others like her.

 

We will set out in the morning and will actually be participating on the Creekview Cheer Team this year. As you might know Teal works for Carrollton Farmers Branch and her friend Cynthia, who you have probably read about before is a cheer coach at Creekview. They are a service squad, as opposed to competitive squad, and they were able to raise money for breastcancer awareness so we are glad to be able to support them in their efforts to do just what we hope to do too!

 

We are very excited to run this race and have heard much about the amazing atmosphere! If you haven’t already you should really check out the website for this race and the cause. We understand now the importance of early detection and awareness and the website is a catch all for anything and everything you would ever want to know about breast cancer.  In Cindy’s case when she finally went to see a doctor her breast cancer was at Stage 4.  No matter how scary a feeling something abnormal in your body may be – simply ignoring it won’t make it go away!

 

 

 

Cindy & her daughters, Julie & Cynthia in March 2009

We will be running this race with a picture of Cindy and for the first time we do not have true goals. We want to run and take in everything that we see. Teal ran this race about 10 years ago and just remembers being in awe of what is present at the race so it is really something to take in. We will also be doing our long training run on Sunday morning which this week should feel like an easy peasy 13 miles, right?? 🙂 

 

 

 

Goals:

Enjoy the race and take in the atmosphere

 

Weather:

Morning – 65*

Rain- 0%

Wind- 10mph

 

 

What is the Deal?

So this week I’ve been far from my usual workout self.  I’m not quite sure what my deal is!  Usually I get my workout plan for the week laid out and where everything can fit in to my busy week.  Monday I decided sleeping was more exciting than getting up for yoga, but I did manage to get in spin class after work.

Tuesday morning I got up and worked out with Johnny per usual for a Tuesday morning, but I skipped running in between that and going to work.  And we got a new client at work that’s left me at work late a couple of days and going in early.  Which is why Tuesday night there was no time to fit in a workout post work and before my usually weekly movie night.

Wednesday morning I had to be at work early to prepare for a hearing and attend the hearing so I wasn’t able to get up early for yoga or anything.  By the time we were finished with the hearing yesterday afternoon I was exhausted!  Maybe because I didn’t get my usual cup of coffee in the morning.  Or the hearing I sat through over temporary orders in a family law matter drained me. Or I had two of my protein shakes for breakfast and then finally got to eat a salad at 2:30 p.m.  I somehow convinced myself to go to yoga.  Probably because I have a goal of hitting 150 yoga classes by October 31st.

Yesterday after yoga I went home and sat in my bed and watched TV for like 3 hours before passing out around 10p.m.  It felt great to do nothing for that many hours something I feel I rarely do.  But I was suppose to be running 8 miles, cleaning up my house and prepping for a baby shower that Teal and I are hostesses for along with our friend Mandy.

Here we are at Thursday and I got up and did my usual Thursday morning workout with Johnny and again skipped on running before work. 🙁  Notice the lack of running this week?  Yah, I haven’t actually run since we put in those 17 miles on Saturday.  Which makes me wonder how 18 miles will go this coming Saturday!

Due to the lack of running this week though I kind of feel like I suck. 🙁  Here’s what this week training wise is suppose to be:

And in reality it’s look liked this –

Funny that I feel like I suck this week yet I’ve at least put in an hour each day doing something active! Ha

The Story of Teal & Beth

So we officially became bloggers 7 months ago and we started off with race talk immediately, the goals we had for ourselves, why we were blogging and all that fun stuff.  We both realized that really you guys probably don’t know much about us besides that fact that we run, run some more, brunch, and well you know indulge in the occasional adult beverage, but what you may not know is how we met and how we have actually gotten to where we are now—Friends!

We met each other really randomly the first time through a party one our mutual friends had at the time. I had always heard about the infamous Beth Lynch and was really kind of nervous to meet her. She came to the party and we didn’t talk much, but rather I just sort of stayed close to our mutual friend.  In 2006, Beth and I, and our friend were all graduating from college and decided to take a beach trip! Basically to celebrate that accomplishment and it turned out later to be an annual thing… more about that later! I would definitely say we were “friends” at this point but really didn’t do much together or talk or really hang out on our own. I don’t even think we even had each other’s phone number at that point. Our beach trip was awesome, but we really never “bonded” about much. Just talked and stuck with the people we knew most at that point.

After returning to Texas we hung out a while, went to birthday’s, random get togethers and had even starting a “craft night” to which my husband refers to as, “drink and gossip” night. One of Beth’s best friends, Rebekah, around this time had gotten engaged and was planning her wedding. We all gathered basically once a week and helped her prepare for her wedding- glue stuff together, address and lick envelopes- you know crazy wedding stuff!

Rebekah's wedding in Pampa, TX

As I mentioned earlier the beach trip turned into somewhat of a tradition and that next summer of 2007 we made it to Cancun again. Definitely by this time we both had grown much closer in terms of friendship—we had each other’s numbers for sure 😉

Rebekah, Beth, Teal & Vanessa - 2nd Annual Beach Trip!

In 2007 Teal got engaged to her long time boyfriend and really this is when things really changed.  I really wanted to have Beth be a part of my life on a more of a “ yea she is my friend” level and I asked her to be a bridesmaid in my wedding. She of course said yes and then everything just sort of went from there. Beth and I bonded big time about my wedding and the happenings involved with that. I really felt like she cared- You can tell, she makes a great deal of time and effort into her friends and really did anything and everything she could to help and support me with the wedding.  I was slightly crazy (don’t judge- most brides are) – but she never batted an eye- including nights where we would glue, unwrap, wrap, and make crap for hours. (Notice a pattern?) She was there! Not to mention I got to use her amazing handwriting – yes you should be jealous!

So you know how we mentioned that annual beach trip—in 2008 we decided to change things up and went to the Dominican Republic! Of course as you have probably guessed by now- more bonding and hanging out and all that fun friend type stuff.  My wedding was in November of 2008 and basically everything went off without a hitch- minus of course a short temporary moment of panic about my bracelet, but beyond that nothing. Below you can see Beth in her running around madness at the wedding!

Dominican Republic Beach Trip

We flew to Hawai’i that next year to visit Rebekah and tour Hawai’i – Beth who has now flown with me a million times had gotten used to my routine, holds my hand, lets me cry like a 2 year old, and lets me sit by her! A task I am sure not many want! Hawai’i was probably the best trip of my life!

On our way to Pearl Harbor and our hair got stuck together

Things kind of got a little crazy after this year. I had started graduate school, had started working for my dad at MowerMedic and was also teaching. Life was insane. So insane in fact that I had no time off, ended up exhausted and ran around like a crazy person trying to get everything done. Beth always managed to stay around and was always encouraging to me. No real trip took place that year, but I did meet a girl through grad school who would but a bug in my system about running a half marathon. I had talked to this girl in my program about running a 1/2 and neither one of us really thought we could do it. We had talked about it with each other and really realized this was a goal and something we both wanted to do! By September Beth and I really started training and kind of kicked things off with the Tour de Fleurs race and basically went from there- both completing our first half marathon at White Rock.

Mary Alice (who happens to be Rebekah's sister), Teal and Beth after finishing White Rock Half

Upon finishing you could tell that neither one of us was really that satisfied. I honestly think it went something like “that’s it?”  I know for me I looked around at all the people finishing the marathon and was like—we have to do that! Beth of course said “if you’re in, I’m in” and that is how we got to where we are now.

Since finishing the first half we have spent super amounts of time together, the four of us Mandy, Rebekah, Beth and I have spent New Year’s together, traveled to Mandy’s wedding in Cancun and hang out all the time! It is safe to say that this is a friendship I cherish with all my heart- as cheesy as it might sound. She’s not just my running buddy- I think you can see!

New Year's Eve 2010

We are only two short months away from this year’s goal and I know I would never have been here without her support and out support of each other. Beth has a six sense really about the social media world and mentioned a blog- I really have no idea how to do anything technological- She is the brains behind this posting business!! I really kind of thought this blog would not be what is now! This has not only helped us running wise in terms of motivation and accountability but also to learn so much more about each other and become better friends in the process and not to mention has opened both of our eyes to the huge running community.

And a couple of goofy pictures of us to end it all:

– Teal

Why I Wear a Go Sport ID

I have been running and/or exercising with some sort of identification and emergency contact information on me for at least a couple of years now.  Being from Dallas I’ve heard the news stories of a young female who passed away during a well known race here and a young female who was in accident on a well known trail which resulted in her death. Sorry, this is not one of our typical happy go lucky posts.

Sometimes there are instances where even having that ID on you makes absolutely no difference.  Which is NOT me saying us that as an excuse to NOT take measures to make sure people know who you are, who your emergency contacts are and what you are allergic to in emergency situations.

How many of you have been in or around an emergency situation?  Is that what made you go out and buy an identification product?  Or had you already decided it was the safe thing to do?

My memory is foggy now on whether my ID came first or the holy crap moment, but nonetheless my sad experience is this –

I’m not normally a late evening worker outer (meaning after say 8pm), but  for whatever reason I had gone to my gym (who shall remain nameless) and parked myself on an elliptical with my music going one evening.  I am doing my workout thing and notice a dude gets on the elliptical next to me.  Oh, and look he doesn’t stay on for that long so I think “must be doing a pre weights warm up.”  I can see him out of the corner of my eye as he got off and went behind the machines which back up to a wall.  Then all of a sudden he’s no longer in my peripheral vision and there’s a thud.

When I look he’s fallen flat on his face.  None of the gym members working out in that area really knew what happened, but as people began to talk to him it was clear that he was unresponsive.  I grabbed my phone and dialed 911.  While I am on the phone with them we all see he’s stopped breathing normally and ever thirty seconds or so his body is gasping for air.  A bunch of gym members flip him over on his back and then the member that was a nurse began administering CPR on him.  The paramedics get there and being to work on him.  I have to be honest and say that the gym employees were really not a big help in this situation nor did they seem very prepared for it.  We all watched this guy get wheeled out of the gym and I looked at my phone to see how long it had been since I’d dialed 911.  Being a former lifeguard and going through all the training I knew that the 45 minutes spent trying to revive this guy without success meant it would take a miracle for him to be alive.

The next day I put up some sort of facebook status about what I’d witnessed and how important I thought it was to have an ID on you while exercising.  My status is followed by a message from a college friend asking me for details, naming a High School friend of her’s and that he’d passed away last night.  Of course, I immediately search for his name on facebook and it’s the guy from the elliptical next to me.

I find out he’s only two weeks older than me.  Than me!  At that time I only had a few months left of being a 25 year old!  A 25 year old guy next to me at the gym had a heart attack and died!  He’d been in a serious relationship for a number of years and of course I start thinking about how my boyfriend and I just celebrated 2 years together.  My heart immediately hurt for the dude’s girlfriend (and it did for his family).  I can’t even tell you how shook up I was from those 45 minutes at the gym that night.

From that day forward I’ve been a huge promoter of wearing IDs when running.  I am not sure in this dude’s situation if it would have changed anything, but I know his parents and girlfriend might have known sooner.

Are you someone who has put off getting an ID? How come?

On weight loss shows you often hear contestants say “I need to lose the weight so I can be around for my kids as they grow up!”  To me the next step from there is protecting yourself when you are exercising to lose the weight or running outdoors so that you can ensure you are around for your kids in that way as well.

Over the past few months we’ve kind of fallen in love with the Go Sport ID.  The heart and spirit of this company is felt through the twitterverse! 🙂  And we can’t help but love that they are a Texas based company!  We both have been rocking the Inspire ID and love them! Whoever decided to give customers the option of buying a multipack of colors for the wristbands was GENUIS!  I get all stupid excited to change the band out!  The Inspire only costs $18.95, the multipack of band is an extra $5-6 and there is FREE shipping!

That means it costs less than $20 for someone to know what you’re allergic to in case of an emergency.  Less than $20 for someone to contact a family member even if something minor happens to you and you can’t call.  How is that not worth it?

Have our Go Sport IDs shirts on at Disneyland Half Expo and we got some demon eyes in this pic!

-Beth

Happy Fall, Y’all!

Happy first day of fall! Happy cooler temperatures!

20110923-080444.jpg

7th Annual Heroes for Children 5k

We have reached our FINAL race weekend for the month of September!  Wow, this month sure has flown by!  Back in March Beth got involved with Heroes for Children and immediately knew she wanted to be apart of their 5k committee.  Well, we’ve finally arrived to the week leading up to the big 5k race!

This 5k specifically benefits Heroes for Children and enables them to continue to help families who have a child battling cancer.  The average gift HFC is able to give a family is $750 which often goes towards paying their mortgage, utilities bill, car payments or even for their child’s funeral.  Each month more than $45,000 is given to families who have a child with cancer.  One of the great details that goes along with who HFC gives money to is the age range for children they’ll help, 18-22 years old, so even college age kids and their families are able to receive financial assistance.

Laptops for Love is another way HFC helps by donating a new laptop to a teenager battling cancer so that they are still connected to the outside world while undergoing treatment and even keeping up with their school work while they are unable to attend school. “Between January 2005 and December 2010, Laptops for Love has provided 384 teenagers with a laptop!”  So as you can see this organization does SO much to help out these families and we are so excited to be apart of the 5k this year!

The race is taking place at the Shops at Legacy in Plano, an area we are VERY familiar with as we started pretty much all of our training runs for White Rock Half 2010 at the Shops.  Teal has recruited a few teachers from her school to participate with us and Beth has recruited a couple of her family members to participate as well!

Weather:

Precip: 10%

Wind: 5-10 mph

High: 85

Low: 62

Goals:

Teal: To run it in 25:19 which would beat her Kacie’s Run 5k time in March!

Beth: I haven’t even thought much about a goal since I’m volunteering and not sure if I’ll actually get to run or not…