Moonlight Madness 2013

Saturday night, I made the hasty decision to run the local Moonlight Madness race at Shasta Dam. I just happened to see an ad for it earlier in the day, and decided that I could race 2 miles no problem. Why not?

I've only done a handful of races in my time. I've done the annual Turkey Trot a couple times and San Francisco's Bay to Breakers once, but they don't total anything near 42.0 races. I don't run a marathon every weekend. Ain't nobody (especially this lady) got time for dat!

I went on my own, since Mike didn't really want to go, so he stayed at home with the baby. I didn't see anyone that I knew, so I spent some time before the race walking around and checking out the view. The last time I was at Shasta Dam was when I was a kid, so it's been a while! The scenery was pretty and the sunset was gorgeous.

That's a nest up at the top of the pole!

It was my first race after having little miss J in January (actually, my first race since November of 2011, heh) so I'm a little rusty at the racing and pacing thing. So it's no surprise that I went out way too hard. However, I shocked myself by completing the two miles in 16:19. That's right. I maintained a stellar (for me!) pace of 8:10 min/mi. I put in a really hard effort and was spent at the end, but I was really surprised by the clock when I crossed the finish line.

My "training" has been lackluster and sporadic at best and non-existent at worst. You can see for yourself on dailymile! I do a lot of stroller walking on my days off, try to wake up early enough to run/walk on the treadmill (which hasn't happened for two weeks now, ha), and during my shifts at work usually cover 10 miles a day, so I guess it's helped my cardiovascular system more than I thought. Anyway, it was great! A+ will run again.

Super thrilled after the race.

Phew.

There's a reason I called myself Ms. Whirlwind, and it's because I always have something going on. I like to have a full life, and sometimes that means I'm running about like crazy and don't have a lot of time to be a netizen.*

So I last posted two and a half weeks ago. In that time, I've worked nine twelve-hour shifts, flown to Albuquerque and back, watched my best friend marry her love (and I caught the bouquet!), sent my son off to his first week of kindergarten, and registered myself for school. That's right, I'm going back to school! If all goes to plan, I should be starting nursing school in January, at long last. The baby also started crawling and climbing everywhere. She's growing up too fast!

I think I need about a hundred gold stars and a few Post-its telling me I'm beautiful to commemorate these achievements.

I plan to write a few posts about the ABQ trip. I definitely need to make another trip out there. I didn't have too much time to explore with all the wedding stuff, and I want to remedy that.

Today is the first day I've felt like I've had a little downtime. My son went to a baseball game with his dad, and I'm finally watching the episode of Clean House that is notorious around my workplace because it features a coworker and his family (he apparently really loves Beanie Babies!). I even dozed on the couch with the baby for a bit. I'm hoping to convince Michael to go to a Moonlight Madness fun run tonight at the dam. Sounds fun to me!

*It happened to be an answer in today's 7 Little Words puzzle. I remember it from early Internet lingo, so it amused me.

Life lately.

So I'm a bad updater. My life is so ZOMGcrazybusy, yadda yadda, no one cares why I haven't updated. Anyway, here are some highlights.

Work related - I finally (finallyfinally!) got my phlebotomy certification in the mail. My teacher was not exaggerating when he said the state takes forever. Anyway, I'm thrilled to have the darn thing finally in my hot little hands.

I had to cut short my run yesterday because of a terrible tragedy. We went to Costco the day before, and Mike picked up a bottle of Jack Daniels (he loves it. I don't get it. I think it tastes awful). I put it in the freezer to chill and we forgot about it. Yesterday morning, before dawn, I was running on the treadmill in the garage while Mike and the kids slept. All of a sudden, Mike pokes his head in, saying something that I can't hear over the roar of the belt.
I stopped the 'mill. "What?!?! Are the kids awake?"
"The freezer is open and the bottle is broken."
#@*@%&! $40 Costco-sized bottle (so like, a liter and a half-ish?) fell out and shattered everywhere. RIP Jack Daniels. You will be mourned.*

Today, J made her first trip to the DMV with me. Our DMV is awful. I'm not sure if all DMVs are similar, but this one is filled with an air of despair and neglect. People were fighting over whether or not someone cut in line, and the poor employee was trying to placate them by saying that she "babysits" her line, so no one "cutsies." Thank goodness I made an appointment so the errand was mercifully brief.

Tomorrow is my Monday. I'm leaving for Albuquerque for my BFF's wedding in a week, and so I'm working three days, one day off, then working another three shifts so I don't have to use any vacation time. Gots to get paid, yo. I didn't correctly guess the number of molecules in Leonard Nimoy's butt, so no free first class one-way ticket. (sorry, Weird Al's "Albuquerque" reference!)

This is so all over the place. Catch ya tomorrow!

*Mainly by Michael and our bank account.