You don't sweat much for a fat girl...

Welll...not exactly.  Actually, I'm a BIG sweat"er".  That's just the partial title of the SECOND book I read over Winter Break!

The book is a series of essays the author writes that are laugh out loud funny.  Seriously.  The actual title is "You don't sweat much for a fat girl - observations on life from the shallow end of the pool".  Celia Rivenbark, bless her heart,  is a southern belle - much like myself.  She writes about subjects from the Octomom, Rapper Fabulous, Barbie, Nebraska, and Snuggies (just to name a few).  Some of my favorite quotes:

"Oh, high road, you are just so very overrated"

"It's tacky to poke fun at people who are, and I will use the clinical psychiatric term here, crazier'n a sprayed roach"

"Y'all I had to start watching The Real Housewives of New Jersey every week because, well, my IQ was just too high"

LMAO!  I chuckled the entire way through this book.  She also wrote:

• You Can't Drink All Day if you don't Start in the Morning
• Belle Weather
• Stop Dressing your Six-year-old like a Skank
• We're just like you, only Prettier
• Bless your Heart, Tramp

Which I will also be checking out very soon!

Other highlights of the week -

This week has been sort of a challenge - felt like I was getting sick all week and finally got knocked down with a cold on Thursday.  Luckily, I have had time to to relax and hopefully get well before going back to work next week.

My Aunt Angie and Uncle Jim were in down from North Carolina.  We got to do some mini golfing and Aunt Angie was able to go wedding dress shopping along with my mom, sister, niece, and future mother-in-law.  It was an amazing experience at Patricia's Boutique in Brooksville.  (I actually got my senior prom dress at Patricia's back in the day.)  The staff the was very nice, and Patricia even told me that I had a small waist and big boobs.  What?  Bless her heart!

Friday I basically sat on the couch all day and watched "Say YES to the dress".  It was the bridesmaid edition, and let me just tell you that these women were out of control!  If any one ever talked to me or treated me the way some of these biotches were acting, I certainly would not be friends with them.  Or allow them in my wedding.  Hello!  My super-sarcastic bridesmaid, Lori, sent me a picture of these potential bridesmaid outfits in response:

Bless her heart.

Ben also made me drink my tea with Jim Beam on Friday night.  He claims "it's the second best to moonshine" for getting rid of colds.  What?  Ok, I caved and drank this awful concoction.  Personally, I think he wanted to get me drunk so that he could beat me at Jeopardy.  It was terrible, but I did think it worked!  So strange...

I attempted to run this morning, but didn't get very far.  Only about 6 miles.  Still not feeling 100% and didn't want to push it too hard.  But I did run 100 miles in the month of December and 961(ish) miles the entire year of 2011!  Wow.  I'm setting a goal to run at least 1000 miles in 2012.  Looking at the "stats" over the past year was fascinating.  Surprisingly enough, February was my highest mileage.  My lowest mileage, you ask?  July.  I love summers in Florida :)

Tonight, we are having our second annual stay-in for New Year's Eve.  It will consist of the following:

Thank you for limited edition Biltmore wine Aunt Angie and Uncle Jim! :)

We are so boring, but hope you all have a very safe and Happy New Year!

Marathon Woman

Yesterday, I finally finished reading Marathon Woman by Kathrine Switzer (the book describes how her father was so excited when she was born that he forgot the "e" in her name).

I even got to meet her at the Space Coast Marathon expo in November:

She even signed my copy (!!!!):

The Marathon's the Reward!

Kathrine was VERY nice at the expo and, needless to say,I was very excited to read her story. (Due to work/family/holiday/insert any additional stressful life items you may have here it has taken a bit of time)  She was the first woman to officially enter Boston (as K.V. Switzer because everyone spelled her name wrong) and finish in April of 1967.  You may recognize the infamous photo below in which Kathrine was almost pulled off the Boston course by an official but was body-checked by her then-boyfriend (and future first husband):

What I didn't know about Kathrine was how much work she put in advocating for women's running, her own training, and organizing races.  She was one of the driving forces that got the marathon to be an Olympic event for women in 1984. (I was born in 1981, so as long as I have watched the Olympics the marathon for women was already in existence).  It really seemed so strange to me that 1967 was not all that long ago.  And 1984 was less than 30 years ago.   And women were not "allowed" to run.  Hmmm..

The other thing that I really loved about the book is that Kathrine made no apologies for some of the mistakes or miss-steps she made in her life, was always encouraging of other women, and truly worked hard.  (She ran a personal best marathon of 2:51 in the 1975 Boston Marathon.) 

And now there are more women runners in the United States than men!

Some of my favorite quotes from the book:

• If you want to run, run a mile.  If you want to experience another life, run a marathon.
• The race is the moment it all comes together: you commit, and put it all on the line.
• Training works.  Sometimes it takes years and sometimes is happens quickly, but there will be improvement.  Suddenly, one day you'll be running and you're a lot better than before.
• That's what the marathon is, above all else, a quest to reach a destination.

It made me think about my own marathon experience.  The marathon is such an emotional journey and it is so hard to describe (unless you've been there).  And it's a really powerful thing, once you do a marathon you feel as if you can anything.  The book in a word was amazing.  Truly an inspiring and motivational story.  Thank you, Kathrine (and the other pioneering women of running) for making women's running a real sport. 

In other personal victories:

Today when I went for a run my neighbor-man who called me a "jogger" said, "Have a nice run!"  Perhaps he reads my blog?!?  :)

I got a weather station for Christmas!  (There is a sensor that you put outside and it shows the outside and inside temperature) LOVE it!  It even has a figure that shows you how to dress!

Hope you all had a great Christmas with the ones that you love!

"Tis the Season!

Merry Christmas Eve, y'all!  It's almost 80 degrees here in Tampa, Florida.  Ben and I are sitting with the doors open, fans on, watching Jaws 2.  (Jaws is one of my all-time favorite movies but I don't think I've ever seen Jaws 2). I also heard that Universal Studios will be closing the Jaws attraction as of December 31st so it's a little Christmas Eve trip down memory lane.

Today was the day that my two running "worlds" collided.  My girls - Mel, Rhonda, and Jen - were going to meet Chris who I have been running with at the Upper Tampa Bay Trail recently.  I wasn't exactly worried because it's not like there was going to be a brawl or anything.  I figured Chris and Rhonda could sing together (Rhonda is more Jingle Bells and Chris is more Bloodhound Gang), Jen and Chris could talk about craft beers, and Mel and Chris could really just talk about anything.  Really.

I had 12 miles on my schedule.  At anything under a 9:00 minute pace.  Chris had other plans (although he hadn't told me yet..)  We started out together and then the girls wanted to get back to Strider base camp to get some coffee and goodies and they turned around at 5 miles.  I've been trying to increase my mileage by one mile per week and maintain my under 9:00 pace.  We were doing a pretty good job on the way out so Chris joined me for one more mile out.

That's when it broke the news...

He wanted to finish around 1:45 so that way on half marathon day, if necessary, we can walk the last mile and still be under 2 hours.  Ugh.  Really?  Of course I agreed, but had to rumble a little.  You can see in the splits that we really started picking it up after the 6 mile mark.  

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	1:44:54.1	12.00	8:44
1	9:15.0	1.00	9:15
2	8:46.9	1.00	8:47
3	8:44.4	1.00	8:44
4	8:51.1	1.00	8:51
5	8:40.6	1.00	8:41
6	8:50.3	1.00	8:50
7	8:26.4	1.00	8:26
8	8:29.7	1.00	8:30
9	8:34.3	1.00	8:34
10	8:43.8	1.00	8:44
11	8:43.7	1.00	8:44
12	8:48.0	1.00	8:48

When it was all said and done, Chris then broke the news that he wants to pace me to a 1:55 half marathon. What?!?  This guy has been drinking too much egg nog!  But when I got home, I calculated the 8:44 pace would be a 1:54 half marathon.  Hmmm....something to think about for sure!

When we got back to Strider camp, there were a ton of people there.  It was nice to see everyone on Christmas Eve.  Oh, and the food!  There was so many delicious treats prepared by my talented Strider friends.  Not to mention that Jen baked me an awesome goodie tin filled with cookies! Yum!  (This coming from the woman who said that she's not a baker - hmmm...)

Tonight is the third annual Montgomery/Kelly/Raposa cooking baking extravaganza.  It is truly one of my favorite holiday traditions.  Hope you all get to spend some quality time with your family and friends this weekend.  Love ya - Merry Christmas! :)

Jogging?!?

Ben and I moved to Carrollwood in July, and we LOVE it here.  We are really in the middle ground of our work situations and close to everything.  Our townhome is on the end, and we really only have one next door neighbor.  (Ernie, who went to THE University of Florida with Faye Dunaway.  Just ask him, he will tell you ALL about it!).  But, we also have a guy who lives two doors down (no idea what his name is) who is ALWAYS outside smoking...

Neighbor-Man works for the newspaper so he keeps pretty strange hours (no judgement).  And he told Ben that he only starting smoking as a way to cope with a divorce and it just sort of went downhill from there.  Anyway, whenever I come home from working out or running he is surely standing there.  Smoking.  So of course I wave and say hello.  And you know what he says?

"Hey, you just get done jogging or something?"

Jogging?!?  Excuse me?  Mr. Two-Packs a day?!?  I'm a RUNNER! Hello!  Do you see the 26.2 sticker on the back of my car?  Or the awesome new Brooks Pure Cadence that I'm sporting?  Or the fact that it's only 6:30 AM and I'm DONE with my workout already? Or that it is 2011 and jogging isn't even in anymore?!?  Psht.  I swear some people just don't get it.  I just smiled and sarcastically said "Yes, I just got done jogggg-ing"

Anyway, that was after my awesome Wednesday morning workout.  I met up with Coach Winterling and Natalie from PHCC's (national ranked!) cross country team at San Antonio Athletic Complex.  The hills in San Antonio are well-known and no joke.  Initially, we planned on doing 6-8 miles.  Apparently that translates to 8.25 miles in reality.  :)  It was a really beautiful morning and we got to see ton of adorable houses, St. Leo University, and plenty of hills.  Check out the elevation changes(!):

Split			Distance	Elevation Gain	Elevation Loss	Avg Pace
Summary		1:15:21.0	8.25	328	323	9:14			7
1			1.00	23	45	9:25
2			1.00	72	21	9:27
3			1.00	0	31	9:06
4			1.00	35	25	9:11
5			1.00	82	65	9:21
6			1.00	48	81	9:13
7			1.00	18	0	9:03
8			1.00	35	53	9:07
9			0.25	14	0	9:13

Here is a photo of Natalie and Coach Winterling after the run that I stole from Coach (they look like they just went out for a casual run! Geeze!)

Other highlights of the week:

Monday Night: Bootcamp with Jenny.  The 12 days of Christmas!  12-Burpees, 11-(Can't remember?), 10-Walking Lunges, 9-Run a Lap, 8-Bicycle Crunches, 7-Plank Walkups, 6-180 squats, 5-Skaters, 4-Pushups, 3-Squats, 2-Inverted Pushups, 1-Star Jump.  Needless to say, I was sweating like nobody's business!  It was an awesome workout (as always!)

Tuesday Night: Four Green Fields Run with Ben!  I get really excited when I get to run with Ben these days, because it doesn't happen very often.  I had the idea to do some intervals throughout the run, so we did a 1/2 mile interval, 3/4 mile interval, and a 1 mile interval with a warmup, cooldown, and resting interval in between.  It turned out to be a pretty good 4 1/2 mile run. Here are our splits:

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	39:34.1	4.50	8:48
1	8:30.9	1.00	8:31
2	8:47.9	1.00	8:48
3	9:12.6	1.00	9:13
4	8:15.1	1.00	8:15
5	4:47.7	0.50	9:37

Wednesday Night: Jen's Birthday at the International Beer Garten.  Everyone was trying to convince me to run the next day, but I was totally not feeling that come Thursday morning.  But we still had a good time (as evident in the photo below):

Friday Morning:  Ben is now officially off work so we decided that we were going to go for an "easy run" in our neighborhood in the morning.  Here are the splits:

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	37:24.5	4.00	9:20
1	9:38.3	1.00	9:38
2	9:26.8	1.00	9:27
3	9:09.5	1.00	9:09
4	9:07.8	1.00	9:08
5	:02.1	0.00	7:32

It occurred to me that a 9:20 pace used to be my race pace and now it's an easy run.  What?!?  Doesn't really sound like a jogging pace, right?!?   

Happy Friday, y'all! :)