it's definitely been a while...

Suffice to say, I've taken a bit of a hiatus from blogging since my last post. To be perfectly honest I've lacked motivation and inspiration (I don't have cute, entertaining kids to post about :). However, I think my break is over and for the one reader that just might still be out there (if I'm lucky), I'll begin blogging again.

Since it's been a while, here's a brief run down of my life since the last post on June 5:

-Summer rolled by without any major note worthy events.

-At the conclusion of the summer, I got to enjoy a brief trip down to the gulf for a little girl time with my mom at the beach. This turned out to be perfect because the guys in my family aren't the biggest beach fans.

-I did indeed have the privilege to run in the 40th running of the ING New York Marathon. It was quite the experience! Fun city. Fabulous race. The experience is worth its own post, so look for that coming soon.

-I also had the joy of going to India for several days on a mission trip at the beginning of November. THAT definitely is worth its own post or even series of posts!

-I've finished a couple of good books since I last posted so don't be surprised if you see a couple of book review in the coming weeks.

-Lastly, I'm running the St. Jude 1/2 marathon this weekend. I LOVE this race... or at least the 1/2 is a blast. I'm running it with a couple of girls from my office and we decided to raise money for St. Jude so if you are in the giving mood hop on over to this site and make a donation!

By the way... it's great to be back!

So, it's official. I'm in. November 1 I'll be running the NYC Marathon! Marathon training starts tomorrow, which means I have to get my running butt back in gear (I've been slacking the last couple of months). However, having a goal, especially one that you've paid for, can work wonders for the accountability side of training. Thankfully my training buddy (and fun friend) for this exciting experience will be Monica! Running the New York City Marathon has always been a dream since I started running. I've actually been trying to get in the pool to run this race for the last 2 years (this was my third try!). At any rate, as I usually am at the beginning of marathon training, I'm a bit nervous, nevertheless looking forward to November!

just another saturday

A little recap from the weekend: This past Saturday contained one fun adventure, one new place, and one new creation! What a GREAT day! Let me explain…

Fun Adventure: Despite the early morning rain, I headed out to Shelby Forrest for a nice trail run Saturday morning. Due to the rain, the trail was nice and soft and felt great on the joints and knees which have gotten used to running on the asphalt and concrete as of late. This run reminded me just how much I love trail running; it is far better than road running. Anyway, being that I don’t have any upcoming races to prepare for, it was quite nice just to run… and yes, run in the rain. Once you got going and engrossed in the natural spring beauty that surrounded you, you didn’t mind all the sloshing around. The sound of the rain hitting the tree canopy above, the choir of chirping birds overhead and wet shoes trudging through the water saturated terrain. Sorry for the bad picture quality, it appears I had a little rain on the camera lens. At any rate, here are a few fun pics! (Note: Yes, several months back I surrendered and purchased a running skirt. You know what?!?! I love it!)

New Place: After the soggy run, I headed back to my house for a quick shower that was VERY much needed (I had mud everywhere!) and out to Panera Bread for lunch with a friend. I’ve been to Panera Bread in the Atlanta airport but never to the one in Cordova… until Saturday. I had a small salad and some yummy French Onion Soup (I love French Onion Soup!). Great food + great company and conversation definitely = fun times!

New Creation: I mentioned here about the Sprinkles cupcakes recipes that I got my hands on Easter weekend. Saturday I made them for Sunday's Grace Lunch. I decided to go with the Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing. I’ve never made cupcakes (or any cake at all for that matter) or icing from scratch before so, this was the second “first” of the day. Thankfully, I had my good friend Ashley there to help out with the cupcake construction. Despite being only slightly dry (does anyone know how to fix this so the cupcakes are a bit more moist????), these cute little cakes turned out to be quite tasty. Personally, I feel the cream cheese icing was my favorite part! Mmmm.....

It's official...

A new running route in Memphis is coming soon! I'm excited! Check this out...

It's been a while since I really blogged. So here's a random update of sorts... Enjoy!
-My aunt recently got her hands on the recipes for a couple of Sprinkles Cupcakes and made them for Easter lunch. They were fabulous and I think I’m going to make them for this Sunday’s Grace Lunch. Get excited!
-This coming Tuesday, April 21st is Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s… again, get excited!! Who doesn’t love free Ben & Jerry’s?!?!
-About a month ago I woke up on a Sunday morning and the thought of coffee was enough to make me sick. Consequently, I didn't have any and I had a headache to pay for it later. Ever since then I've been doing something I never thought I'd do... drink decaf coffee in the morning! Weird I know! At the very minimum I've been having ½ decaf, ½ regular coffee in the morning hours.
-I went to the Death Cab for Cutie concert on Saturday night and had a BLAST! What a fun concert. I highly recommend catching their show if you have the opportunity in the future.
-I haven't blogged about Tiger basketball since that fatefull day that Calapari officially decided to leave but I am really excited about out new coach Josh Pastner. Additionally, I'm really saddened by this response that so many have had towards Calapari lately. He did a great job at Memphis and he's a likeable person. Hopefully as time passes and the sting of his departure lessens, Memphians will look back on his tenure here at the university with great fondness. It was a fun ride, which hopefully will continue...
-Completely unrelated to the Memphis basketball: I'm a BIG fan of little government. Enough said.
-I’ve still been plugging away at Isaac Ambrose’s Looking Unto Jesus and here is a quick quote/ sampling for you: “Only Christ is the whole of man’s happiness.” Great stuff.
-Since Ambrose’s book will likely take me 10 years to finish, due to it’s length, I’ve been reading a few other things simultaneously. Recently I finished a book that was lent to me by a precious little girl at my church who LOVES to read! It was a super book about a missionary who I was previously unfamiliar with, Mary Slessor. She spent her entire life serving numerous tribes in Calabar (in Southern Nigeria, Africa). This book has really piqued my interest and I’m dying to know more about Mary.
-In other book related news, I got my copy of Hungry Girl's latest cookbook in the mail yesterday and most all the recipes look yummy! I highly recommend these easy and healthy remakes of your favorite recipes.
-In other recipe related news, I got a great new recipe from last week’s Viking Cooking School class for a homemade vinaigrette. You should give it a try. It’s fabulous! The great thing I learned is that the mustard, in addition to adding extra flavor, holds the oil and vinegar together so they don’t separate quite as easily. Such a fabulous and easy recipe!

½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
Pinch granulated sugar
1 tablespoon champagne vinegar (or whatever vinegar you happen to have handy)
3 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon thinly sliced chives
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

-For the first time since I started running in 2004, I am not signed up for a race furthermore, I do not even have one in mind. Any good suggestions?
-I bought some Roundup at Home Depot last weekend (yea! It was on sale!) and am ready to rid my flower beds of pesky weeds so I can plant my spring/summer flowers (impatients, which I also got on sale at Home Depot!). Unfortunately, it's supposed to rain this weekend so that might put a damper on my gardening plans... I'm sure you'll see pictures of my gardening right here, so stay tuned! :)

kicked asphalt... all 26.2 miles of it!!!

I've been back from my trip to Philadelphia to run the marathon for a week now and haven't gotten around to updating with details. So, here goes...

"Kick Asphalt" is the official theme of the Philadelphia Marathon and I must say that's exactly what I did! This was a great race (well organized, great course, etc.). It started and finished in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which of course was made famous from that great scene in "Rocky." The race started at 7am and it was freezing... literally. I actually prefer a cold race and once we got started running the day turned out to be perfect for running a marathon. The course provided you with a great foot tour of the city... We passed the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Philadelphia's "Old Town" (the historic part of the city), the Philadelphia Zoo, Drexel, and The University of Pennsylvania. The last 13.1 miles of the marathon was an "out and back" to this cute little town, Manayunk, with a great, quaint main street. This town was so cute I wanted to take a break in middle of the town (mile 20) and do some shopping!

Thankfully, this race eventually came to an end at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. As if just running 26.2 miles wasn't enough, I had to run up the stairs of the Museum of Art just like Rocky did, for a photo opp (crazy, I know!). To make things even better, after all that... I had to walk a little over a mile just to get back to my hotel. No rest for the weary, right?

However, once I completed the trek back to my hotel (btw folks: technical running clothes designed to keep you warm while running do a fabulous job of just that. However, they do a rather lousy job of keeping you warm any other time... in other words, the walk back to the hotel was miserably cold.) I must say I was ready for a nice warm shower to help me thaw (yes, I totally skipped the ice bath!), this tasty new hot chocolate/recovery drink (which is wonderful after a cold run!!), and a much deserved NAP!

While in Philly, I also got to see the room in Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence and our nation's Constitution was signed. Here's a pic... By the way, the only piece of furniture that is original to the room is the big chair in the middle of the picture. George Washington himself actually sat in this very chair. How cool!?!?

I have to add that while we were in Philadelphia we did LOTS of good eating (I totally justified it with the fact that I was/did run 26.2 miles). To name a few, we ate at great tapas bar, Continental; a great Itallian resturant for our pre-marathon meal, Spasso. However, more than any other resturant, it was very appropriate that we went here to enjoy fabulous food...

All in all, a fabulous weekend!

leaving for Philly!

Well, tomorrow is the day! I'm setting off for Philly bright and early tomorrow morning. I'm excited for sure--I love to travel but the nervousness of the upcoming marathon (yes, I'm sure that no matter how many marathons I run, I'll always be slightly nervous!) adds a different dimension. At any rate, I'm quire sure I'll have a blast! I'll be sure to update with lots of fun pictures and info when I get back...

taper time!

It is hard for me to believe that the Philadelphia Marathon is about a week and a half away. Crazy! At any rate, I'm ready and am officially "tapering."

I've also prepared for my time in the "City of Brotherly Love" by watching Rocky. I assure you if I get anywhere close to those steps, I will take the time for a fun photo op! Since I will be arriving in Philly a day and a half before the marathon the plan is to sqeeze in a bit of sightseeing... maybe Constitution Hall, Betsy Ross' house, and the Liberty Bell. I can't wait!!!

running to obtain the prize

A random event happened almost two weeks ago at a Tuesday night track workout that I haven't yet been able to let escape my memory. There is a precious British couple, Ted and Margaret, that run consistently with my running group. I love running with sweet Margaret, she runs at a pace that is just a bit faster than I, just enough to be a good challenge. While her husband Ted is just as great, he is FAST, a lot faster than I. At the end of our speed workout (yes, it is brutal to put this part at the end) we are to do three 300's around the track as fast as you can. I was not particularly excited about this portion of the workout but knowing that it is easier to run it with a faster partner, accepted Ted's offer to run the 300's with him.

Now Ted already had one 300 in the bag by the time we started therefore, we decided to run the two 300's together and I would have to run the last 300 solo. Immediately after taking off with Ted I started to reconsider... Ted was running insanely fast, much faster than I am accustomed to. Each time Ted felt me backing off the pace he would look over his shoulder and verbally pull me along. He would say, "See the girl in the white shirt ahead? Just run to her." and when we zoomed past her he'd say, "See the man in the black shorts ahead? Just catch up with him." And though I felt like I was going to throw up, I did make it to the end, in record speed, two times! Though Ted was setting the bar high for me with quite a challenging pace, he was there, running the "race" with me the entire way.

However, I felt an even more challenging test arose as I realized that though I was ready to quit (after all, Ted had now finished his workout) I still had one 300 left to run. The following thoughts crossed my mind, "Ted's done. I can run the last one by myself and slow the pace down. There will be no one beside me to challenge my pace! Nice! I can ease up a bit, not have to run quite as hard." That was the furthest thing from the truth. Not while Ted was still on the track! Ted sent me off for my third 300, admonishing me to break it up into manageable pieces by just trying to catch (and beat) the girl in the white shirt front of me until I got to the end. Through that entire last 300, I could hear Ted from the other side of the track yelling with his British accent, "Catch her! You can do it! You've almost got her! Keep going!" Every time I thought I wasn't going to be able to keep that same pace until the end and I would back off ever so slightly I'd hear Ted's British yell come from across the track.In the end, I did catch the girl in the white shirt in front of me just as I was crossing the 'finish line.'

So, why has this random event been seared into my memory over the last couple of weeks? For two reasons: (1) I am grateful for those in my life who have run along side me, setting the pace just a bit quicker than what is comfortable for me, challenging me to live outside the comfort area. I'm thankful for specific men and women in my life that are running towards Christ as hard and as fast as they can. I'm thankful that they encourage me to mirror their pace in pursuit of Christ as well. (2) I'm grateful for those that, though our course might be different for the moment, they yell their challenges for me to keep running towards Christ from the other side of the track. I'm thankful for those that when I start to back off the pace ever so slightly, yell their admonitions from the other side of the track to keep running as hard as I can and not to stop until I've reached the finish line and obtained the prize.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. -1 Corinthians 9:24

back on the track

So, last night was my first night back to my running group's weekly track workout since April (yes, I have been a slacker when it comes to speed work but I HATE speed work when it is HOT!). At any rate, now that it has cooled off here in Memphis, I am back on track (literally) when it comes to working on speed. This morning my legs are definitely feeling the effect of being away from speed work for such an extended period of time.... Not optimal with the Tour d' Espirit coming up this Friday night where I plan to run a mere 25 miles. :)

I also feel compelled to share with you that my absolute favorite speed work album is Lecrae's "After the Music Stops." If you haven't checked out Lecrae you might want to give him a listen and I found out last week, he's from Memphis!!! Nice...

one 20 miler done

Whew! I'm glad to have the first 20 mile long run in preparation for the Philly Marathon behind me! I was up early enough this morning to have 10 miles out of the way before the sun even came up... yes kids, that means I was up super early on a SATURDAY. Of course, this is pretty typical for me. At any rate, this run is over and I now can enjoy the rest of my weekend. Though a bit humid, the day didn't turn out to be nearly as hot as I anticipated and I was extremely grateful for the breeze (compliments of Hurricane Ike). I was also grateful for the farmer's market, which just so happens to be on the way back to our cars--thankfully, my running partner for the day had a couple of extra dollars on her and we each were able to get a nice, juicy, ripe peach just before the end of our run. I've never had a better peach!

So one 20+ mile run down and 2 more to go before the main event on November 23. The next really long, long run is slated to be 24 miles on October 4 at the Tour d' Espirit (a 24 hour race, which supports Haitian medical missions). I'm already anticipating this one...

Mute Math

Since it has become increasingly trendy in some circles of the blogosphere (example: here and here) to post a bit regarding Mute Math, I thought I would jump on the bandwagon today!

I must start by noting the following two things: (1) Mute Math has become my current favorite “running soundtrack” and (2) sometimes I have a bad habit (especially when running) just to listen to the music (the beat, rhythm, etc.) and not really process the words to a song. Such was not the case yesterday as I was squeezing a quick run in after work; I actually began to take notice of the words to Mute Math’s song Control. Most specifically, Mute Math sings the following words in this song (emphasis mine):

Take control of the atmosphere/ Take me far away from here/ There is no better loss than to lose myself in you/ In a parachute to glide, I am captive in your sky/ Surrender has somehow become so beautiful/ Take control of the atmosphere/ Take control of the atmosphere/ You can take my world you can fill the air/ Take control, take control/ Such a beautiful surrender/ Move me up through the darkest clouds/ Till I've lost in the sun every shadow of doubt/ There is no better find than to find myself with you/ In a fog you are all I see/ I'm inviting you closer with each time I breathe/ Surrender has somehow become so beautiful/ Take control of the atmosphere/ Take control of the atmosphere/ You can take my world you can fill the air/ Take control, take control, take control, take control/ Such a beautiful surrender/ Take control of the atmosphere/ Take control of the atmosphere/ There is no reason I should breathe unless you're in the air/ Take control/ Such a beautiful surrender/ Such a beautiful surrender/ And I'm calling out Would you take control/ And I'm calling out

As I ran, I listened and actually processed these words, I was reminded that there is indeed no better loss than to loose myself in Christ… for what “loss” is this really? I was reminded to plead for grace and strength to stifle the rebellion in my heart and embrace complete surrender to His good pleasure… for this is indeed beautiful. I was assured that there is indeed no greater find in this life or the next than finding yourself hidden with King Jesus and seeing Christ formed in you. So that “reminder” might have been more than I bargained for or expected in a short run on a random Monday afternoon but Mute Math, thanks for the reminder nonetheless.

officially committed!!

I just booked a flight to Philadelphia in November and signed up to run the Philadelphia Marathon! Yep, I'm officially committed to running 26.2 miles on November 23, 2008... I'm a bit nervous but I usually am before making big commitments! Now, I'm weighing my options regarding the Memphis Marathon/Half-Marathon, which is a mere 2 weeks after the Philadelphia Marathon. I love the Memphis Marathon/Half-Marathon because it supports St. Jude and honestly it has kind of become a personal tradition to run it! I think I'll go sign up for the half...

Fun times and Fabulous Friends

Nashville is a wonderful city and major props to their race director for putting on such a great race for 30,000 runners! Saturday morning started out a bit rainy but by the time I made it to the start line (45 minutes after the gun time!!) the rain had moved on and the temperature was slightly cool, which translates into absolutely perfect weather for running. By the time I had completed the 13.1 mile run the sun was just beginning to peak out from behind the clouds and give great hope for what turned out to be an absolutely beautiful day!

Part of the fun in running an race is the great post race food! My great friend (and college roommate) suggested we go chow down on the best burger in Nashville... she wasn't kidding! If you are ever in Nashville you must add Rotiers to your list of places to go. This little hole in the wall resturant produced the cheeseburger that inspired Jimmy Buffet's Cheeseburger in Paradise and once you've had one you will understand why! The hamburger on French bread was amzing but the grilled cheeseburger is to die for! Think grilled cheese sandwich meets hamburger... mmm....

Perhaps one of the best parts about the whole weekend was being able to hang out with my fabulous college roommate (and her amazing family! :), Laura, who recently accepted a position at Vanderbilt and moved back to Nashville. There is something to be said for the blessing of old friends and the ability to "pick up right where you left off" no matter how long it has been since you've actually seen them. Thanks Laura for providing great crowd support during the race and showing me around Nashvegas, local style! I can't wait to go back!

A great run.

As a runner, I find that there are times when you are about halfway through a particular run when you realize that this particular run is different from most other and is in some way working like medicine or therapy for your soul. Sounds weird? Maybe to some, but it is true! Last night was one of those great runs. It was a run that wasn’t necessarily planned and it didn’t really fit into a training schedule. There was no real structure, minimum mileage or goal time for the workout. I didn’t have a running partner, a watch, or cell phone—I just ran. At times, with certain events and emotions that tend to cloud your vision and confuse your thinking, there is nothing like lacing up your running shoes and heading out the door. Leaving everything surrounding you for a few brief moments and retreating to the sound of the birds beautifully chirping after a brief thunderstorm, your shoes hitting the wet pavement in just the perfect rhythmic cadence, and the setting sun reflecting off the clouds in just the right way so as to gloriously produce a multitude of burnt orange, yellow, and red hues all across the sky can all work together to bring everything back into perspective. Being outside on a run like this reminds me there is a Creator who is far greater than I and my life is about Him. Suddenly, with this reminder, the clouds in my soul roll back (if even only for a moment) and my vision is clear again. Yes, a great run can indeed be therapy at times.

(p.s. Of course that is ME running in Fern Canyon, CA in the photo above! Right, but in reality maybe I'll add this in as a stop when I am in California in May... then it really will be me!)