Recapping August

The month of August felt like it flew by!  Cross Country started for the kids, school is back in now, and we've had a super-packed schedule so I just haven't made the time to write a new post.   I'll summarize the month:

Maizey came home August 2nd!  She's doing great and is huge, very sweet and extremely FLUFFY!

11 weeks old and growing!

August 3: I ran the Women's Distance Festival 5K for ladies only.  It was a great run - beautiful, sunny, warm weather and a huge turnout.  I finished this one in 28:25 and was 50/175 runners.  Not a PR, but I enjoyed the run anyhow.  Afterward they had a 100m high heel dash for both men and women, which was very entertaining!

Race start (pink top, black skirt on L)

August 7: P, the kids and I ran the Sole 2 Soul race out in Perrysburg.  Nice flat course that had two runs: 1K for kids under 12, and a 5K.  It's also a local race that's very heavily marketed toward cross country runners since it's just before their season starts.  They had over 100 kids in the 1K race and over 430 runners in the 5K.  I ran with our 3 year old in the 1K....he did great!  0.6 miles in 9:03 which is super for such a little guy!  Most of our oldest's cross country team ran it as well...they definitely stood out with their team shirts on!  I finished this one in 28:19.  It was super humid that day and I had to stop at the water stop.  I'm looking forward to fall races that aren't so humid!!  I'd like to PR sometime this fall....my pace always seems to fall around 9:00/mi.  I just need the heat and humidity to break so I can push myself a little harder without getting all gaggy and barfy doing so.

Finishing the 1K kids' race

Finishing the 5K

August 10: P and I, along with a few other members of our running group, ran the Run or Dye 5K.  It was something fun and different, but I don't have the desire to do one again.  Lots of people, crowded course, people just everywhere.  We treated it as a group training run and pretty much ran in a pack the whole time - after all there was no clock to time us, and no one wanted to wear their Garmin out of fear that the dye might ruin it - so we just ran along together at a comfortable pace where we could all chit-chat.   It was fun and we got very colorful, but I've gotten my fill of "just for fun" novelty "races" after this one. 

"She comes in colors everywhere....she combs her hair....she's like a raaaaaaain bowwwwww" - The Rolling Stones

In between Run or Dye and now: work got very busy, our oldest started back to school, we had ab huge back-to-school pool party, and one case of pink eye.  Yes, it was a busy 2 weeks!  It also got back into the mid-90's with 90% humidity, so I did not run much.  I tried to take Maizey for lots of walks as somewhat of a substitute.

In unfortunate news, P sprained his knee a few weeks ago and after hobbling around in excruciating pain for a while, he saw his Dr. who performed some imaging and found knee effusion (water on the knee).  P needs to see an orthopedic surgeon for treatment, but can't get in til mid-Sept....he's completely sidelined until then - NO running...although he's in so much pain that he probably couldn't run if he wanted to.  It really stinks, but he's taking it in stride.  My brother-in-law is also sidelined due to both an upcoming surgery and injury, so at least P has someone to commiserate with.

This past Sunday, my sister in law and I went on an 8 mile run together.  It was really fun and it felt GREAT to go on a nice, long run.  The best part was the mimosas we enjoyed on my back deck afterward :)  However, my calves have been pretty sore ever since, which just re-iterates what I already know: that I need to get back on a regular running schedule again!!   We are going to try to do our long runs together every weekend from here on out, so that'll be good motivation to get back at it.

Upcoming races:
Oak Openings Stampede 25K (15.5 miles) - 9/15/13
Towpath Half Marathon - 10/13/13
Churchill's 45.5th Annual Half Marathon - 11/9/13 (I did this one in the spring - and historically for 45 years it was in the spring...however  they decided to change it to November, hence the "1/2" tagged on the end.  It is in a totally different location, so I'm excited for the new course!)

Every two weeks, I go get a manicure at a local day spa.  I always opt for the semi-permanent, "Shellac" -type polishes because regular nail polish just does not last on me.  Through trial and error I found that I like OPI's GelColor the best.  I personally find that (on my nails) it lasts the longest, stays the shiniest, and makes it simple to match my hands and toes if I so desire (since most of their regular colors come in GelColor too).  I thought it might be fun to start posting what my "nails of the moment" are every two weeks, so here's the first round: OPI GelColor in "Vampsterdam" (I actually got these done last week Friday.  Just today I had to go back to get a horribly split nail repaired - it was so bad, she had to put some acrylic on it to build it up because it split down so far.  But now it looks pretty again!).   All summer long I went for the nice, vibrant pinks and fuschias and corals.  This last time I felt ready to tone it down to my usual burgandy/brown/dark neutrals.  I like this one; it's deep and dark but a bit "richer" than, say, Lincoln Park After Dark.   On the surface it looks like a creme, but in the right light you can catch the small glints of micro-glitter that are about the same color as the polish.

Now that life is coming down to a more manageable level of chaos, I promise to try to update more!

New running buddy!

Friday evening, we brought home a new running partner….meet Maizey!

Ok, so she’s not quite running-partner-sized yet….but isn’t she just SOOOOOOO cute???  She’s a 7 week old Golden Retriever. 

P and I are dog lovers.  When we first started dating back in 2001, I had an English Springer Spaniel.  Shortly after we got involved, he adopted Dave, our Dalmatian.  And a few months after that, I went to the pet store to get something and it just so happened that the Humane Society had one of those adopt-a-thons going on there too.  Being the softie (sucker) that  I am, I went home with whatever I had gone there to buy PLUS a little black lab puppy, Summer.

Summer ended up with a large tumor that grew on her rear leg, which we had removed in 2009.  It was a rough surgery with a difficult recovery for her.  In 2012, it started to grow back again.  We didn’t want to put her through surgery another time, so we just monitored it.  In April of this year, the tumor grew too large, so we put her to sleep.  She was 11 years old.  Summer was a wonderful dog and I miss her and think about her all the time.

Our springer spaniel, Corran, lived to the ripe old age of 15, until we had to put him to sleep in May.  He was so arthritic and had really bad muscle wasting in his back and rear legs.  He ended up not being able to maintain his body weight, and became very thin – almost emaciated – even though he always had food.  Putting him to sleep was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, but it was also the most humane thing to do.  He was my first pet, so you can imagine how hard losing him was.

Since May of this year it’s just been us and Dave, our Dalmatian, who is currently 12 years old.  He never showed any signs of aging until Summer and Corran were gone.  All of a sudden Dave started acting like an old dog – he’d limp a bit when getting up from a laying position….some hearing loss…and his activity levels definitely decreased.  I’d buy him toys and he’d want nothing to do with them.   He became very clingy and always underfoot….we started constantly tripping over Dave.

We started sending him to a local doggie daycare every now and then, and taking him with us more places where there are other dogs.  He really likes being around other dogs, and it seems to have helped him perk up a little bit.

We started talking about getting another puppy and even went and looked at a few.  Then all of a sudden a friend of his posted on Facebook that his two Goldens had puppies that morning and there’s one that still needed a home.   We got ahold of them right away and that’s how we ended up with our little Maizey!  We waited a long 2 months for her but it was so worth it.  She was the biggest, fattest puppy in the litter and since we love big dogs, we were attracted to her instantly.  We went every 2 weeks to visit the puppies and let the kids play with them, and Friday evening we brought her home with us.  We are all just so thrilled to have her!!  Dave took an immediate liking to her and is already teaching her “how to be a dog” in our household.

Get the name?  Maize and blue…Maizey!



These are just a few photos I took over the weekend – she’s very cute and fluffy!  She’s been really great so far, very friendly and very social.  She’s getting used to lots of kids and commotion in a hurry, which is good because we definitely need a friendly dog who can put up with all of that.  We are really looking forward to watching her grow up with the kids!