Happy New Year!!!

I know, I know that the New Year was 19 days ago. But if you read my last post, you will know that I could not type on New Year's day, due to my giant splint! You would have also read that I was going to spend the next few days catching you all up on our crazy lives! :)

I can't remember how long ago, Deanna told me of a "project" she and her family do on the last day of school: They sit down and each member writes out 10 things they want to do for the summer. How awesome is that!?!?! We tried it for a couple of summers and never did complete our lists, because we ran out of money or summer! So, I changed it to the first of the year and for the whole year. Some items on the kids lists last year were going to Great America, going camping, going to visit another state, spend a week at each grandparents... Some items were simple like going to swim at the beach.

2014 was a great year of travel for me. It was one year ago today that I was in California for my Tinkerbell Half marathon with Deanna! (Her first half, WOO HOO!!!!) I got to go to Denver, CO for the National Massage Convention, and OH to visit my brother (whose family is now in California) and I took the kids with me to Florida in November to see Deanna and I complete our Coast to Coast challenge at Disney World!

Here is my 2015 list:

Mama’s 2015 List of Goals

*2015 in 2015 with Marie

*Do a full marathon (Lakefront or the Inaugural Milwaukee Marathon)

*Start my running streak over!

*Run 15 or more races in 2015

*RAGNAR?

*Badgerland Strider Challenge again

*Take the Personal Trainer test

*Start training at the WAC

*Look into Girls on the Run certification

*Help Swimchick earn her Silver Award

*Take PeeWee's troop camping/overnight camp in our backyard

*Read 1  book a month for fun/ 1 book a month on self-help

*Blog more

*Cut sugar out of my diet

*Better at menu planning

*Try to add more real food to our menus and less eating out.

*Pay my dental bill
*Pay off my surgery


SO, there it is everyone. My list of goals. I have not signed up yet for the Badgerland Strider Super Strider Challenge. (Money is a bit tight at the moment. I do need to see when the challenge closes, to be sure I don't miss it!!!!) My friend, Marie, asked if I would join her in the 2015 in 2015. As a team, we have to complete 5.5 miles of walking or running every day in 2015. Check it out here. I signed myself up on the website, and to date have only logged 2.75 miles of walking.  It was torture! Physically and mentally. I was sore the next day, not used to walking, and the pace was killing me. If I had not been in that splint, I would have laced up my shoes and hit the pavement. I had to go to the gym and use a treadmill. The next day, the kids and I went to visit my parents, and I didn't bring any exercise clothes. (excuse, excuse, excuse!) Anyway, I signed up and am part of team: Hot Tamales! Go Team GO!!!!

Today is my New Year, and I am planning to go for a run of at least 3 miles. {The weather has been super nice for January in WI. I am planning to do the "park loop" when my husband leaves for work. SHHH!!!} I need to figure out how far behind I am and get caught up. LOL!

Last year, I found a blog boasting a 14 in 2014 race challenge. I did that, and could have done more runs over the summer, but didn't. SO, I am going to challenge myself to do 15 this year. :) And before I fell and got put into a lovely hard cast, I was feeling like I could take on a full marathon again. {I am not sure how you go about doing the 50 states challenge but I have never run a full marathon in WI! HI, IL, MN and FL yes.} Some runners in WI have decided to do a Milwaukee Marathon weekend in Oct/Nov. Oh, my bad, I just looked it up and it will be named MILWAUKEE RUNNING FESTIVAL WEEKEND. I have not decided if I would like to do this full or if I would like to do the LAKEFRONT MARATHON. Again, I need to see what the fees are and when they go up or close the entries. Then decide and talk with my running partners to see who is up for what. I would like to use Another Mother Runners Own It program for my halves and this whole marathon this year. 

I know several folks who have done a RAGNAR race. I think it would be a fun time. I put a question mark on that one, because I have been asked to join a team, and then they filled up. So, I might be able to join if someone else can't make it. We will see!

Oh, for the book reading: I am slowly reading THE FRED FACTOR as my personal growth book. And I started reading FIFTY SHADES OF GREY last night. (I finally got the library e-book reader to work on my phone, and am into chapter 3 already!) I am on Goodreads.com if anyone wants to follow me and see what I have read!

And today is the first day of our 14 week Challenge with 100 Days of Real Food. (The challenge is closed for this year, sorry.) Every Thursday I will get an email with the next weeks challenge on it. We are to start on Monday. This week we are to add more fruits and veggies to every meal. And we are not to buy anything with more than 5 ingredients in it. It is surprising to read the ingredient labels to see how often sugar is listed.

Well, that is the summary. What do your 2015 goals look like? I'd love to read them here in my comments! ;)

Off -n- Running,

AnnMarie

Strider Half

This is the starting line, about 5 minutes before the air horn started the race!  Race time was 8:00am.  You can sort of see the fog in the trees in the distance.  And everyone looks sweaty before the race!

I started to hydrate on Thursday afternoon and continued until race time.  Our summer has been pretty cool as far as Wisconsin summers go.  So to complain about the humidity on race day?!?!  I think it was allowed.  (Then again I am going to enjoy the heat as much as I can after the freezing cold winter we have had.)

I have not been following any training plans this summer.  This is my 4th HALF marathon of the year.  As you may recall, I started the year with an injury.  (I thought it was my piriformis, turns out it was/is a hamstring thing!)  Any way, with all my crazy challenges this year, I have not followed a plan.  I have not seen much of a trainer or taken classes at the club I work at.  So, I go into these races with the goal of only crossing the finish line.  And so far this year, that is what I have done.

This is how I started my Saturday race!  I just need to finish.   As the air horn blasted, I pushed start on my Strava app and tucked it into my race belt.  And we were off.  Just me and about 1000 other men and women.  I put on my headphones and FUN. was running along with me.  After about mile 5, I decided that was enough music and tucked the headphones away.  Then I took in the race down the path, it was nice.  I wished for a breeze and a dry shirt!   

We hit the turn around and it occurred to me that I had not heard my app update me on my race time.  I have been enjoying the app, I like to listen for my splits.  I am not very good at even splits and tend to just run.  She keeps me charging forward!  

I crossed the finish line and took my phone out, only to see that it didn't record my run!  AAAAHHHH!!!!!  Seriously, I don't know what happened but it didn't record.  I had been using the app to track my month and now it will look like I missed a day of running.  

Thankfully there is a results tent and I could get my official time and stuff:  1:56.15, 6th in my age group.  Not to bad for not following a plan!

Sweaty selfie at the end of the race.

This was my 9th race for the year.  So I have 5 more to complete my 14 in 2014.  This was my 4th race in the Badgerland Strider Challenge too.  

I saw my friend, Sara there and met the dude who wears pink ALL THE TIME!!!!  I have seen him in many of my Challenge races and wondered what his deal was.  Sara asked him about it and he told us he just likes the color pink.  He also said he gets asked a lot about that and that he really likes girls too!  Poor guy.  He is funny and friendly, so if you are in the Milwaukee area and at a race, you will find him, I promise!  

It was a great day for a run with my friends, I hope to see them all again soon.  Until my next post...

Off n Running,

AnnMarie