Catching Up - Races, Travelling, Training

I haven't posted since May 9th.  
I haven't been a very good blogger lately.  I haven't been doing anything out of the ordinary or anything; I just haven't been keeping up on blogging!  All of a sudden, my iPhone won't email pictures to me anymore and I have no idea why.  That makes it harder to get the pictures I take on the phone to use on the blog.
I've run a few races, volunteered at a race, taken a couple of short trips, tamed a feral kitten, had some great runs and had some really bad runs.
A week ago Saturday, June 28,  was one of the really bad ones.  I ran eleven miles but after mile 7 it got tough.  I walked a couple of times up hills.  I was so upset.  I don't know why it was so hard.  The next day, Sunday, I only ran three miles but that was very difficult.  I wasn't quite back to my car when I hit three miles and I just walked the rest of the way back; I never do that.  Monday I tried to do a tempo run but that didn't quite go as planned.  I ended up doing mile repeats.  I made it two miles then had to stop and rest about a minute and then again at the third mile before running the fourth mile.  I guess it's better than nothing!  I wasn't looking forward to Friday which was the Hanover Firecracker 5 miler at all.  I was very surprised that I ran good and never had to walk up any hills, and there are three big ones on this course!  I came in at 44:20 which is an 8:52 pace.  I even got third in my age group!!  After the race I changed in my "changing room" in the backseat of my car behind the tinted windows and raced over to Grass Lake where the rest of the family was getting lined up for the parade with our vintage tractors.  We pulled our church float with one of them and I walked along beside the float passing out invitations to the Vacation Bible School.  I still had Garmie on so I reset her and started it again and I walked 1.84 miles in the parade!
My cousin who lives in Alaska was home visiting his parents (my Aunt and Uncle) so we had a get together there yesterday so I didn't go to long run group.  My sister who lives in California was able to come and attend the party so I got to see her too!  My sister-in- law and I talked about our plans to run the Vegas Half Marathon in November!  She hasn't been running since we ran the Chicago Marathon but she's getting ready to start training again.
Today I was going to head to Chelsea to go for a run when I saw on Facebook that one of my running friends was running on my favorite route and posted a couple of pictures so I decided to drive 15 minutes more and run on my favorite trails!
Argo Pond was beautiful today with the sun shining on the water.

Argo Pond

I always love passing this sign:

Do not enter 

This is an old road that has been closed for a long time.  The do not enter sign is for cars.  It is ok to walk, run, or bike on it.  It's just kind of fun to run past the "do not enter" sign!  I only run through here occasionally; it adds about a mile to my run.
There is also an old leftover sign from when the road was still a road.  I love this sign:

sharp curve ahead

I'm now training for my four half marathons this fall.  I am training for my goal race which is the Women Run the D women's half in Detroit on Sept. 21.  It's 11 weeks away now!  I ordered a book called, "Run Less, Run Faster".  I somewhat followed the first week of training but had to make some changes because of the 4th of July race.  I also spent an entire day helping my very pregnant niece with  some things she needs to do before the baby comes so I missed the speed work out that day.

I can hardly believe that the 4th of July has passed.  After the 4th of July summers just seem to fly by.  After the winter we had I want this summer to last a very long time.
Tomorrow is back to normal life.  I have a corner piece of cake, too many pulled pork sliders, more cake, cookies, two oversized meals on the 4th, and ice cream twice to work off and recover from!  It's always a fun weekend when the 4th falls on a Friday!

A big storm is brewing; what great timing, right when the holiday weekend is over and it's time to go to bed!

Runner Nerd
celebrates the country's birthday

Fourth of July (a couple weeks later)

Oh my, I haven't posted since July 1st.  I am going to attempt to get caught up in the next couple of days.
The Fourth of July has come and gone and now the summer is just flying by.  I had a good race on the 4th. I ran the Firecracker 5 miler in Hanover, MI.  The day before was speedwork day and I went ahead and went and ran 4 800s, all under 4 minutes or sub 8 minute mile pace.  The workout was actually 10 800s but I only did 4 because I had to go and register for the race.  It poured while we were running the repeats and as soon as I left, it stopped raining!
I decided to be silly and wear red, white and blue things.  I had a sparkly headband; I was worried about it but I forgot I was wearing it and never even noticed it.  I wore a red shirt and blue skirt and red, white, blue star/bead necklaces. 

I looked and looked for patriotic knee socks and never found any but I did find these - they are mens' dress socks!  They actually stayed up!   Had this race been any longer, I'd have been in serious trouble because these socks aren't made for running in!  They aren't as thick as my running socks so my shoes were a little loose no matter how tight I pulled the laces.  My feet were stinging by the time I finished.  I expected to have huge blisters because that's what it felt like but there wasn't any.  They were in the process of forming, I could see that but they weren't full on blisters yet.  They were a bit sore for a few days. 

This is, I think, the 6th year I've run this race.  They changed the course 3 years ago so this is the 3rd time on the new course.  There's a few hills out there.  I wanted to run at just under 9 minutes.  I wanted my average pace to be under 9 minutes.   At the first mile, Garmy beeped and said 8:11.  Huh??  Oh crap!!  I can't run that fast!  I knew it was going to get tough at the end, oh well, I'm the queen of going out too fast!  After that, the miles came in at 8:55, 8:45, 8:33, and 8:30.
The result:

This was a small race and did not have chip timing.  My official time was 43:15 for an 8:39 pace!!  I was 4th in my age group and they gave awards to the top 5 in each age group!!
After the race, I had to clean up with my Burt's Bees wipes (love those things!)and change clothes in the back seat of my car (the reason tinted windows were invented!) and head over to Grass Lake where the rest of the family was getting ready for the big 4th of July parade.  We only took 1 tractor this year. 

1935 John Deere D

I found a place to sit along the parade route and was surrounded by little kids!  This parade is known for lots of candy being thrown.  I was helping the little kids retrieve candy!  (and yes, I was giving it to them!)  I remember my daughter collecting a big bag of candy from this parade when she was little.  She's now 22; that's her on the tractor fender. 
After the parade, we got chicken dinners that the American Legion cooked in the park.  We took them home.
Later in the afternoon, I took off to go to my niece's house.  They were away for a few days and she wanted me to be there the night of the 4th because it's crazy in her subdivision.  She was right!  When I drove into the subdivision, the street sides were solid parked cars.  I think every house, except theirs, had 5 or 6 visitors parked in front!  There were kids running all over the subdivision.  Everywhere you looked, you saw people and then there was their house: empty drive, no cars in front, no people.  Now I know why she wanted me there.  As it began to get dark, the fireworks started.  There were fireworks being shot off all over the subdivison!  These weren't little fireworks that you buy from the tents that pop up all over town for the 4th of July, these were serious fireworks!  I sat out on the deck for a while watching the chaos!
So, that was the 4th of July.  Once the 4th of July comes and goes, it seems the rest of the summer just flies by.  I know there is still half of the summer left but I went to bed a little sad that it is going to be gone so fast.  I love the summer time!

Runner Nerd
loves summer

Happy Birthday, America!!