ht_murray | Entries tagged with running

I've been putting off writing this, but since my last post(whoops)was dripping negativity, I thought I'd share some goodness.

Once upon a time, I took up running. It went something like this.

"Hubby, I want running shoes for my birthday this year."

"Why?"

"Because I want to start running."

*laughs* "You'll never use them."

"Screw you. Yes, I will."

Okay, so it was four months later before I actually RAN in the running shoes I got for my birthday, but four months later is not never, so THERE. I actually put them on and putzed around my block sometime last October, back when a mile and a half seemed like a huge distance, and I couldn't run even that. I remember distinctly what I did last Thanksgiving, because I put my dressing in the oven and went out 'running.' My run that day was a whole whopping two miles, and I couldn't run more than five minutes at a time without walking. I don't know what made me keep trying, but I did, and that's why I have a race to report.

( My first ever 5k race under here. )

Short story. Ran my first 5k in very poor fashion. Finished in 28:30. Lived to run another day.

Here's the link I promised the charity this race benefited. Mercy Project. According to the race coordinator, the race raised over 7000 dollars, which would free about 7 of these children from slavery. That's something to be thankful for, for sure.

Sorry for double posting. I'm really behind on updating.

First, thank you so much

sams1ra and

calamitycrow for the Yorkies on my profile page. They're so adorable. I want one for real now. LOL.

And a new LJ community that I can totally get behind.

fandom5k

It doesn't matter what you can do now, I have no doubt you can ALL walk or run 3.1 miles by June 30. Do I really need to tell you the benefits of weight-bearing exercise? Here's a chance to get in shape, support fandom, and any worthwhile cause. Fandom has a bad reputation. Contribute to the good karma, eh?

For those of you who are interested, I posted a race report over here in the runner's community.

It got long and rambly as most of my posts do. :P

Hope everyone's having an awesome weekend.

I ran my 10 mile road race this morning in 1 hr 41 minutes and 40 seconds. That's a 10:10 min/mile pace. So I'm tickled with that. I was aiming for under 1 hour 50.

Now, I'm gonna hang out and watch Veronica Mars on Netflix. LOL.

No pics this time, cuz hubby had to stay home and feed the ponies. But I met some new cool people. :D

So, I'm sitting here angsting. I cannot make it stop. I know. I know, wait til it's actually over, and then angst about it. I know, which is why I haven't really discussed my misgivings with anyone.

And why this is making me a giant ball of angsty angst.

Plus,it's been hot the last few days, so unless I go straight from work to my running shoes, it's very hard to get in a good run. That's my pressure release valve, ya know?

But tonight I was sitting here clicking through my tabs for the twentieth time in an hour, and just decided to go for run. It was still 84 degrees, muggy, windy as heck, and almost dark out, but I threw on my new shoes and hit the door, no music, no miCoach, no HRM. Just me, a watch, and my little flashing light stick.

I don't even know how far I went. I'm guessing, knowing the route, that it was around 4 miles. It was dark by the time I finished one. I admit, I panicked a little every time a pair of headlights came toward me, but can I say, it was AMAZING!

I saw a firefly. A firefly! In Texas! Back in Wisconsin the entire marsh was lit up with them at sundown. Here, I've seen maybe five in the whole fourteen years I've been here. Plus, Texas? It kinda stinks. I'm not kidding, parts of it smell like used kitty litter. But tonight, I saw a firefly, and the air was thick with Chinaberry blossoms. The stock tanks were teeming with spring peepers, and I felt like I could run forever.

I used to have this dream. A running dream. I have only two recurring dreams that I can remember. The thirsty dream and the running dream. In the thirsty dream, I walk down a long hallway and stop at every single water fountain and drink and drink and drink but never stop being thirsty. That usually means I ate pizza before bed and need to get up and get a drink of water, already. And then, there's the running dream. I never know why I'm running or where I'm going, but I feel like I could just run and run and run and never get tired. That's what I felt like tonight. It was amazing.

And my new shoes are minimalist with almost no cushioning at all, since I'm working on the transition to barefoot (or at least running moccasins) and I was a total skeptic that I could run more than a mile without feeling like my legs were being pounded into hamburger. Never happened. I actually felt lighter with less impact than in my cushy running shoes. I could hardly see anything, so it was just my feet, and my breath, 3 in, 3 out, eyes straight ahead all wrapped in gray flannel. In the daytime, I'm constantly looking at the ground worried about every little dip and crack because I might trip or twist an ankle. Tonight, I couldn't see anything, and I never stumbled once, just let my feet find the ground. Hmm. I wish I could've just kept going.

All in all, just the most amazing run. I feel like I was going at a pretty good clip, too, but I don't know. LOL.

It was all great until I started thinking the road reminded me of the old intro to "Tales from the Darkside." That intro always gave me cold chills.

And now I'm back to biting my nails again. Sigh.

Heading out for my long run day. How long, you ask? I don't even know. LOL. *consults the archangel miCoach* Um, looks like 1hour and 45 minutes. Hopefully, that will work out to around ten miles, but I'm feeling kinda wiped, so we'll see.

But whatevs, I got my pink crush running skirt on, so I'll look cute no matter what. LOL.

I think I'm caught up on comment replies for the last two posts at least, so I feel safe making another post,at this point. I'm in a mood for confessions.

First confession, I posted that meta on m/m fiction on my Facebook where all my family can read it, and so far, no one's disowned me, but I highly doubt my auntie will be asking me to send her stories ever again. LOL.

Second confession, I totally forgot there was a con going on this weekend. :S I'm so out of touch.

Third confession, I'm really amused and thankful for all the milk and cookies on my profile page, especially the part where almost everyone who sent them felt like they had to say something about there not being any calories. LOL. So, Heather, Jo, Keren,

mini_moue and

jane_eyre thank you for looking after my assets. LOL.

Fourth confession, I don't comment there, but I lurk on the anonmeme all the time. I like it there. There are at least one or two people there who could be me. Some of the best show discussion in the fandom either happens there or is linked from there. The fact that I never get mentioned hurts my feelings. LOL. If you or your friends have been bashed there, I'm sorry, but that's not all that happens there. I like it, because you can discuss show without worrying about hurting anyone on your flist's feelings. And when someone's talking out of their ass, people are quick to point it out. You don't have to like the idea of it or go there, but I think a lot of people are biased against it based on third or fourth hand information, and that's really unfortunate. Like I said, though, I'm brave enough to lurk there, but I don't comment, which makes me kind of a pansy. Whatever.

Fifth confession, I am not happy with show right now.

Sixth confession, I know how it ends! BWahahahahahaha! ( If you wanna know, look behind here. Spoilers only if you haven't seen every other episode up to now. )

And it's a good thing I'm not Catholic, because I think I just abused my confessional privileges by feeding you that line of B.S. I'm so going to Hell.

Seventh confession, I appear to be loopy on caffeine or something.

I've been kinda training in a vacuum for awhile, it seems. Getting in my miles, following the plan, and loving all the support and feedback from my friends (hugs for all) but there was still the little niggling doubt in my head as to whether I could run a race or would just crumble under the pressure-- whether I could apply the training to anything but more training. So, I took the plunge and entered a race, and yesterday I even ran it. (Believe me, I was always well aware that there was no real penalty for just not showing up. LOL.) And you know what? I liked it! Hey, Tracy!

It's still a little surreal in my head, not because there was anything special about how the run went, but because I'm not even sure I know who that person was who showed up on that racecourse. Not me, I'm sure. Some other crazy bubbly chick who stole my clothes... and my bib... and my hair. This is her story, not mine, despite use of the first person narration.

( Long story and pics behind the cut. )

Current Mood: giddy

And sometimes you are the roadkill.

Updated the running blog with pictures of beautiful wildflowers, roadkill, and the reason photojournalism and interval runs don't mix.

For anyone interested, I updated the running blog. There may or may not be an unflattering video of grossitude. But hey, if you ever wondered about those Trikke things, I think it's a pretty comprehensive review.

I'm not. Dead that is. Doesn't mean I don't wish I was. Okay, so, no, I don't wish, but a decent block of uninterrupted by coughinghackinggaggingretching would be appreciated.

Turns out that 'cold' I had tickling in my throat last weekend was some kind of flu that I have now hopefully inflicted on everyone at work. My voice has two ranges, sexass gravelly, bluesy, been smoking for a hundred years and proud of it, and... Tinkerbell. And it randomly jumps from one to the other. I haven't been able to run since Wednesday, and judging by the escalation of my cough since my run(worst 8 miles of my life) on Wednesday, I shouldn't have done that then. But hell, it was 77 degrees and nice, and I'm anxious to acclimate myself to the heat and humidity since summer is quickly approaching. But yeah, huge mistake.

I might need a saline drip just from the amount of fluid I've lost from coughing until tears stream down my face. Which, I wouldn't mind so much, except it doesn't seem to accomplish a damned thing. Nothing is moving. I'm looking at this cold medicine bottle and wondering what is the point of having and expectorant AND a cough suppressant in the same medicine? Are they just trying to drown me? Is that how it works? And yeah, that 'cooling' element they put in it is totally just there to mask the buuuuurrrrrnnn. Oh man, as soon as that cooling wears off it's like I've been breathing fire.

But okay, enough of that. You get it. I'm sick. Blah,blah. Been there. Done that.

Regardless, not much is getting accomplished over here. I may or may not have signed up for something that I shouldn't have, which I'm not going to talk about on here, since that's usually counter productive, but I definitely need to boot Final Draft and work out the bugs or redownload Celtx which I haven't had on this new comp yet.

And while I have quite a few WIPs circulating of late, (and yes, they are still P'ing. LOL.) I think Nightblindness is beckoning to be finished. I posted that snippet the other day, and the next day I got a comment on the post on super_real, which makes think I'm on the right track. Besides, if I want to have a novel length story published by the end of the year, I need to finish the friggin' thing. I know most of you haven't/won't read it because of the pairings and subject matter, but honestly, it's my best work. So, yeah, writing on that at the moment.

And I'm thinking about that comment fic meme fundraising idea, which I've already set up comms for, since wouldn't it be kinda awkward if people I have banned in my journal were to find out by trying to do somehting charitable, LOL. The original idea was that anyone could post prompts and that Tracer and I would answer them, and if people like what we write, they can give something to the charity, whatever's in their hearts, ya know? But I was thinking that some people's charity IS their writing, so I wonder if maybe we shouldn't allow anyone to answer the prompts, still have the prompter contribute to the charity if they're moved to do so, and then give incentives to the contributing authors who 'raised' the most money. For instance, my Team LIVESTRONG contact has offered an incentive to the Chicago Team of a Team LIVESTRONG bag which cannot be purchased anywhere to any team member who raises a thousand dollars before June 1. I was thinking we could turn around and offer the bag to the highest contributing author if we make that goal. And if we don't, anything from the LIVESTRONG store, which has awesome stuff. Possibly the bag for the biggest contributor and other LIVESTRONG merchandise to the second?? What do y'all think? Should we just keep it to me and Tracer answering prompts, or should we let anyone contribute in any way they can, which means, writing if writing is what they do? I still think this is preferable to say, an auction type fundraiser, because no one pays ahead of time, no one pays for something they don't like, and there's no deadline for authors to worry about. Just if they're reading along and see something that awakens the muse, they can write at will.

Ah, well, lying in bed leads to too much thinking, and it's Saturday, so no one's even around to read this post anyway. LOL. Just ignore me, a'ight?

*goes back to bed*

In a word... ooky. (K, now I just started singing the Adam's Family Theme song. That can't be good. I'm all together ooky...)

So, yesterday, well, actually Saturday afternoon and through the day and night on Sunday, I had this miserable weak feeling all over, which I thought was just because I took my Trikke out for an hour and a half on Saturday, which I haven't done in a long time. There's this awesome hill with nice, fresh pavement. I couldn't resist. But Sunday, the weak and achy moved into my throat and upper chest, and I realized it wasn't just post workout crap.

Sunday was my day off working out, so no biggie. Just had to deal with work. Then, yesterday I was off work but had an interval workout planned. I thought all day I would have to skip the workout. But I kept rethinking it. I've heard if the sick is above the neck, you can workout anyway, and if it's below, you should call it off. No word on sick that's kinda in the back of your throat and moving downward. LOL. So, I went for my run anyway, and it was kinda awesome. The last time I did that workout, I crapped out in the middle. Intervals are murder! But this time, all the way through. So proud!

But today, my throat's swollen shut, and my chest rattles. Bleh.

Good news is, I finally got enough caffeine into myself to clear the headache, so I can almost think straight. I might get some writing done. I'm working my way through Nightblindness verse. This might sound like a stupid question, but would 20,000 words of porn work as a conclusion for y'all? Because that fic has been on hiatus while I scroll through all the possible ways to fix the uber mess I've landed them all in, and as cliche as it is, sex seems like the only cure. Here, has a snippet:( cut for fic spoilery and for mentions of boy-kissing, touching. )

--

And on the subject of the comment fic meme I mentioned in my last post about fundraising, Tracer and I were considering a 'one-scene' challenge, something where we give people the moment in time they always wanted. Y'know how, sometimes you re-read a whole fic or book just to get to that one perfect scene that you've got all dog-eared and bookmarked? Y'know how you sometimes watch the show and go, "Why don't they just.....???" Maybe you like the hurt more than the comfort, so tell us who gets hurt and how much it hurts, and we'll write it for you. Or maybe you like the comfort better, then you tell us who's hurt, and where/from whom he takes his comfort. A secret needs telling? A confession that needs to be made? A chick flick moment that just HAS to happen? Basically, y'all give us the canvas and brushes, and we'll paint the scene. One scene.

D'ya think that would fly?

Anyway, now I am sleepy. Off to bed. MWAH!

I'm just testing the waters here. I know I'd probably get better results by posting these to a few of the classified sites (Would you believe someone once offered me 1800 dollars to shave my head and send him pictures? :S) But anyway, I'm trying to come up with incentives for people to donate to the cause. Not because I need the donations, because I don't, but because it's a good cause. (I don't get this money. It goes directly to the foundation.) So, I thought some fun things like, "If I donate X amount, it counts as a vote for Y result." At the moment, I don't have much to offer, but I saw some fund raising pages where people actually shave their heads for a charity. I do have hair. LOL. Not sure I'd shave my head, but hey, if people were willing to pay to see it, ya never know.

So, anyway, I'm just testing the waters here. Behind the cut, I posted some pics of my hair. Believe me, I'm not this crazy whack job who spends all her time taking pics of herself, LOL. I took these pictures on about 2 separate occasions for just this purpose. Otherwise, I have only pictures of dogs and cats, LOL.

Just so you know, this is not me looking for donations at this point. This is just me wondering if people would actually give money to see my hair come off. LOL. So, if you're brave, peek behind the cut at the pics, and then, if you're not linkophobic, go to our blog and take the poll I posted in the sidebar. That's it. No actual money involved. It's all very hypothetical. Can you do that? *makes puppy eyes*

( Pics of Cousin It behind here. )

Now that you've seen the horror, please go to the blog and take the poll. I'm hoping it works for everyone, but I honestly have never done a Blogger poll before, so I don't know. Thanks in advance.

Current Music: hey, soul sister; [ jared + jensen; J2 ]

First, I usually don't do these Happy Birthday posts, but since I saw someone say there was too much Jensen Ackles on her flist today, well, I simply must. Cuz, yeah, I'm a little vindictive like that.

Happy Birthday, Jensen!!

Photobucket

Yes, it's my own crappy pic and I'm not cutting or resizing. That's what birthdays are for.

Random 2: I posted a quote about Jensen running in our running blog, and I know I've read about Jared running with his dogs and such, but I don't know where the quotes are. Can someone help me out with a Jared running quote?

Random 3: I got sunburned yesterday on my 10 mile run. In February. I'm at once both amused and appalled. I know better than to go out without sunblock. It's been so cold and rainy and gross for so long, and it was so beautiful outside, I didn't even think about it. /fail.

Random 4: I met a lady walking a donkey down the road while I was running. It was funny, because as I ran by I remembered what I learned about donkeys in Animal Science 116-- sometimes people keep them with their sheep and fowl because they run off predators like foxes and coyotes. It occurred to me that I had just discovered the answer to my dog bite problem. I just need to get a donkey to run with me. LOL. Okay, that's not practical, but it was a cute donkey.

Random 5: Um, I dunno how to say this. Y'all are entitled to other fandoms, but the more Jonas brothers that shows up on my flist, the more I'm inclined to dislike the Jonas brothers. I won't ask anyone to make filters, because you're not here to please me, and I'm perfectly capable of scrolling by, but you know how, when someone keeps telling you that you MUST like something, you end up just resenting it? Well, that's happening. No disrespect intended, just gut reflex. Sorry. FWIW, I also love Adam Lambert but don't Kris Allen or Kradam and have a strong gut reaction to that, too. But I don't see much of it, so I can deal. :/

Random 6: I'm really excited about the Chicago Marathon. I'm only a little worried there might be some wank when we start fundraising. Ah, well. LOL.

I updated the running blog. I know a lot of you aren't really interested, but the post I just made contains some personal stuff that you might enjoy.

Warning: Mentions of Cancer.

I was tired, and sore, and near tears, and just trying to do my best to not fail, because I couldn't fail again, and Danny came over to me, called me "Baby," like my hubby calls me "Darlin'" and showed me how to make it through the day...

...One day I met him in the break room. He was choking down a bowl of Chunky Soup. Choking it down, hand shaking, and his Adam's apple working around every bite like it was dry sand. I asked him if he was still going to the doctor. He said they were still blaming it on the weed, but he had an appointment for a chest x-ray, at least.

He said he just wanted to stop feeling so... weak.

Cue Ominous Voice: It is done.

So, all over but the cryin', as they say.

Next chapter of Digging Deep is up. I'm not too sure on that one, but hey, comments are disabled, so I guess if everyone hates it, I'll never know. LOL.

Also, posted a humorous gadget review on the running blog. There be kitty pics! Yay!

I'm still working out the kinks over there. And for those who asked, the charity we decided to go with is... *drumroll*... Team LIVESTRONG and the Lance Armstrong Foundation. They apply money to cancer research as well as into educating and supporting people with cancer and their families. It's a great cause, and it seemed fitting, since Lance also hails from Texas. There's no minimum fundraising balance for us if we buy our own bibs into the race. We really want people to be able to give what they can, when they can, because they believe in the cause and not because the two of us are desperate to hit a minimum goal and get into the race. That doesn't mean you're not going to hear about it and get linked to our fundraising pages regularly. If I'm sweating my butt off and limping through the miles, the world is going to know I'm doing it for a reason.

We haven't set up the fundraising page, yet because Tracer wants to wait a week or so to purchase her bib. I'll probably snag mine when she does.

So, there ya go.

On a random note, most of the snow has melted, but there's still ice over my car door. :/

I owe a ton of comments, but I only have a few minutes to get to bed if I want to get any sleep in before work tonight, so y'all are on the list for tomorrow. *crosses fingers*

I just wanted to let you know that venting my frustration and reading y'all's reactions has helped me find my zen with regards to Chicago.

And the zen of it is, I'm not buying any convention tickets. It's just not cost effective. Even the 50 dollars for the nosebleed pass would buy five bales of hay, which would feed my horses for almost a week. So, no, not buying con tickets, but if there are still any available when the time comes around, I might. I'm just not going to stress about grabbing stuff up before it's gone. That's how they get the power to keep raising the prices. Not going to worry about it. If a way presents itself, then so be it.

And once I made my peace with that, a couple other things worked themselves out in my mind. I've been really hung up on working with Team in Training as the charity. Mostly because they pay race entry, hotel, and airfare, so that's three things I don't have to worry about. However, the minimum fundraising I'd have to do is 3900 dollars. And if I don't make the goal, I have to pay it out of my pocket. Most likely I'd spend all the time I would've been worried about hotel and airfare, worrying about the fundrasing instead. It makes more sense to choose another charity with no minimum fundraising requirement. Besides, a lot of people who donate to TNT are put off by the fact that part of their donation goes to pay hotel and airfare (like running a marathon is a vacation, LOL.) So, anyway, been looking around, and there are a bunch of charities who let you raise as much or as little money as you can, with no pressure, and the only catch is we have to pay our own race entry ($135.00), hotel, and airfare. I can probably save up hotel and airfare a lot faster than I can fundraise 3900.00. So, yeah, still going to run for a charity, but probably not that one. Thinking about American Institute for Cancer Research.

And so, that's how that's working out. Just wanted everyone to know that I read and digested all your comments, even the ones I haven't had a chance to reply to yet. And they helped a bunch. *squishes*

Just signed up For my first race! The 10k which is a little over 6 miles. Woohoo!

Sorry for the spam.

*laces up sneakers*

So, awhile back I said to Tracer, "We should run a race together." I suggested San Francisco, as it's only a half marathon, but it's a bad time of year for her, since she's finishing her studies and entering the job field in the spring. So, I scoured around for races toward the end of the year, that hopefully we could get into through a charity group, because a lot of races fill up fast, and there's no other way to run in them without qualifying except through a charity. Plus, I need the motivation of helping out a charity to keep me lacing up my sneakers. I stumbled across the site for Chicago Bank of America Marathon in October. I said, haha, it's in October. They moved Chicago Con to October this year, instead of November. What would that say if both fell on the same weekend?

And you know what? They do. It seems like, poetic, ya know, full circle. I met Tracer on a Supernatural forum way back in season one. She PM'ed me to tell me that I made her spit Dr. Pepper on her keyboard, and now I owed her a new one, and it was the song that never ends, because we've never NOT been in contact with each other since then. I wouldn't hesitate to call her my best friend even though we've never, EVER met in person. So, of course, the chance to run in a race together, to finally come together in order to do something that monumental and spiritual, AND celebrate the thing that brought us together and has been a spiritual journey in and of itself just seemed too much of an omen to pass up.

( Herein lies the rantiness )
When it comes down to it, I'll probably suck it up and buy the tickets, because it IS about the experience and sharing something with my best friend that's spiritual and monumental in both our lives. And the important point of the weekend is raising the money for charity and running the race. It's about the training and bonding. The convention is just a nice bonus. But it's awfully ugly mark to put on an otherwise awesome memory.

That being said, I'm half finished with the next chapter of Digging Deep. I might find fandom an unfair and often unfun place to hang out, but that doesn't mean I'll stop contributing. I love the boys, the show, and my flist too much. *smooshes*

Tracy has just got out of bed after 4 and a halfish hours sleep. She has to leave for work in a little over 3 hours. In that time, things she MUST do, include, make something to take to work for lunch, feed the horses, and shower. These things should take about an hour. With the other two hours, Tracy should:

A) Go back to bed. 4 and a half hours isn't enough sleep.
B) Nice 2 hour run, since yesterday's run got cut short, and she has a lot of basebuilding to do before Chicago.
C) Write the next Chapter of Digging Deep, which she has actually got a good start on.

And now you see what I go through every day. I'm really sorry it's taking me awhile to update my stories, but I do sometimes get inspired for them while I'm out running. LOL. Who knew marathon training was like a second job?

Also, Yay SPN, sixth season. A couple months ago, I really could've cared less. But right now, I think I might like more. I'm greedy like that.

*smooshes to all*

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ht_murray

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HT Murray

Pressed in the Pages

Entries tagged with running

Belated Race Report-BCS Fitness Turkey Trot 2010

Thanks and Pimpage...

Buffalo Stampede Race Report

Bufffalo Stampede 10 Mile Race...

That was Awesome...

Heading out... but before I do, I must confess...

Run Thru The Vines 10k -Official Race Report

Sometimes you run around the roadkill...

Blog update...

Not dead...yet

The state of me...

Tracy takes it off... (and get your minds out the gutter.)

Randomness!

Update...

Dirty Deed is Done! -- only 135 dollars. :P

Posted...

Found my Zen...

First race!

Bitty bitty rant about cons and schtuff...

Informal F-list polly-poll...