TIR: Fresh Legs

So the story picks back up when the active van arrives at the transition point. At that point, I’ve only run 1 mile, ate some food, took a nap; I’m having a great time. I switched from the rest van to the active van as Ed took off running his leg and we headed toward the next transition point. This is where I realized that it was going to be challenging to keep up with everything logistically. One challenge was figuring out where to go as we couldn’t just follow the course because on this leg it took a path over some railroad tracks and then a foot bridge across a creek. With it being a 2.5 mile leg, that only gave us 15 minutes to be in place and ready. Did I mention these guys were really fast? Anyway, we made it to the foot bridge and weren’t confident we’d make it to the transition, so we kicked Matt out half a mile early and told him to “warm up” the rest of the way. In the end we made it in time, barely. Most of the legs were about 5 miles, so our usual strategy was to let the guy who just ran cool down for about 5 minutes. Then catch the current runner half way and give him some water. And then to the transition point to let the next guy warm up. And then repeat. All of that was really non-stop action. There was definitely no resting in the active van.

I was the last one to run a leg and while Noel was running leg 9, Matt started crunching some numbers. Remember this is a bunch of engineers. It turns out that everyone was running much faster than their predicted “conservative” 10 K pace and by his calculations we had a chance of breaking 24 hours. Everyone was quick to point out that we were just doing it for fun but we’re also all pretty competitive. My first leg was started in Flatonia. I thought Flatonia sounded like a nice place to start; better than Hillonia. It actually was a nice little town. The fire department had set up some showers using PVC pipe and tarps behind the theater which everyone except me got to enjoy. But I was focused on my run, leg 10 which was 6.1 miles, just short of a 10K. It was about 6:30 PM by then so I was also the first one to have to wear the night gear. That included a headlamp, a reflective belt, and a clip-on blinking bike light. It was still pretty light out, though, so I didn’t have to use the headlamp. I was concerned about what pace to run since I had no idea what it would be like to run another 10K six hours later. My “conservative” 10K pace was an 8:30 min/mile. I knew I could do all of my miles at that pace because it would be my fast marathon pace, but I wasn’t sure what would happen if I ran faster.

Noel came running in and slapped the bracelet which was used as the relay “baton” on me. No really, it was a slap bracelet. Yes admit it, you remember it from the 1980’s. Anyway, I took off running and felt really good. Amazingly good from what my GPS watch was telling me since my pace was wicked fast. Then I realized that I hadn’t reset my watch from the Prologue and it was averaging in that 7 minute mile. After I fixed that my pace actually made sense, and was still good. The leg was somewhat scenic, some small rolling hills through the Texas countryside. About half way there was a sign for the town of Praha (which is the Czech spelling of Prague) which made me smile since I’ve been there (both in the Czech Republic and in Nebraska). The team was also there to give me Gatorade to wash down my Gu packet. I felt really good but that doesn’t mean I looked good. I’ve never had a picture of myself running look flattering and I wasn’t going to share this, but since you are still reading… here you go (thanks Rich). But then up ahead I spotted my mark. My first roadkill. No not an armadillo. Roadkill is what it was called when you passed someone or when someone passed you. It was different from other races I’ve run since there was the staggered start due to the diversity of the teams. So it was cool to be able to see someone up ahead and chase them down. Especially at night since everyone had a flashing red light on their back. Slowly I reeled him in and passed him. OK, so he was older than me. Much older, and running almost as fast as me, but I still passed him. Shortly after that some other guy roadkilled me and put me back in my place which was really running to push myself. The 6 miles flew by and before I knew it I was at the transition. It also caught our next runner off guard since I was more than a little early. Luckily he was ready. It was just getting dark when I finished and by the time I cooled down it was dark. I hopped in the rest van and off we went to the next rest stop. Just enough time to try to down some food (which mostly consisted of PB&J, Powerbars, and Cliff bars) and try to rehydrate.

Leg 1 complete. Distance: 6.09 miles. Time: 47:32. Pace 7:48.

Can I keep up this pace for 16 more miles? Stay tuned…

Let’s Play Tag

My friend Amy tagged me in a photo meme awhile back (okay, over a month ago!) and I am just now getting to my post. Here are the instructions:

Post the 7th picture in your 7th folder and tell about it.  Don’t cheat, just post what’s there.

So here goes:

This picture of JR was taken May 9, 2004 – almost 5 years ago!! He looks so young!! Look at that silly old fashioned cell phone he’s talking on!

I decided to go ahead and add the next photo in the folder for selfish reasons. It is one of my favorite pictures of myself – I know, weird favorite picture, but my hair looks so good & Red’s does, too!!

And then I saw this picture when I was searching for the one of JR in our editor (because it had the same file name) and decided to be totally random and add it, too!

This is Olivia at almost 1 year (late November 2006). We had the traveling statue of Mary in our home for a week, if I remember correctly. I’ll have to check with the parish office next time we take Livy to preschool and see if “Mother Mary” is still making the rounds. I had forgotten all about her!

Almost forgot to tag someone else – hopefully Roxy doesn’t have our site in an RSS reader (since I’m adding this last line after the initial post went up)!! What’s your 7th picture Roxy?

Violet Frances at 6 Months

Sweet little Violet Frances is already six months old – six months!! Time sure flies when you’re having fun! Violet has been such a wonderful addition and it’s hard to imagine the family without her. She is a really good baby – happy & content almost all the time. Seriously, every week someone asks me – is she always this pleasant? And I have to confess, yes, she is. God apparently did not think I could handle a fussy baby as I’ve never had one (of course, now that I say that, we’re in for it!). Although for the record, Molly didn’t really sleep through the night until she was a year old – that counts for difficulty, right? There was a rough patch a few weeks back, but on the whole, Violet has been a very good sleeper & eats like a champ. She delights in her sisters’ attention and they delight in her giggles. Violet doesn’t sit up yet, but as I’ve mentioned recently, she shocked us by crawling at 6 months and is on the go searching for treasure wherever it may be found – cracker crumbs, train tracks, toy dishes, baby dolls – leave it on the floor and it’s fair game! She has little use for baby toys when there are big girl toys in every direction. Like her sisters before her, Violet is an adoring fan of Red. She crawls to her and pulls her fur while Red lovingly lays still so Violet can get a good grip!

Violet shows her enthusiasm by squealing with delight & sticking out her tongue. So far, her sisters get the biggest squeals, then Red, and finally the sight of cereal in a bowl. She started rice cereal last week and took to it right away. She’s been acting very curious during mealtimes so I figured she would really like it. Olivia enjoyed feeding her the second time and now asks at every meal if she can feed Violet the baby cereal. I think we’ll add bananas for breakfast and then follow with the usual first foods that we can make at home and freeze in large batches (all types of squash, sweet potatoes, etc.). Keeps things cheap & easy that way.

Our beautiful baby has deep blue eyes like her sisters, but has her own look (Molly & Olivia didn’t look as much alike as babies as they do now so perhaps Violet will follow suit with time). She has the most perfectly manicured (naturally) eyebrows, too. Her hair has really thinned out, and what’s coming in is lighter so it’s anybody’s guess as to how she’ll turn out. The other day when it was humid, the longer pieces started to curl at the end and I wondered – could I have hit the jackpot – 3 beauties with a hint of curl? Oh, how I always wanted curly hair (and to be strawberry blond like Molly)!! Violet is much more petite than Molly was (wears a whole size smaller at the same age) so that makes her about the same as Livy was, which is nice because it makes her easy to carry around.

Here are her stats from the 6-month checkup:

Height: 25 1/16 inches (25th percentile)

Weight: 14 lbs. 12 oz. (25th percentile)

And that’s why we call her Peanut! Other nicknames include Violet the Pilot, Pilot, Baby, Violeta, Sweet Pea, Piglet . . .

Violet Frances Andrews

And she’s beautiful, breathtakingly beautiful (notice the perfectly lined eyebrow)! I’m sure you agree.

Funny Stuff

Olivia: “Is this a turtle neck?”

Mama: “Yes.”

Olivia (exasperated): “I don’t want to have a turtle neck. I want a girl’s neck!”

So Proud!

Today when I picked Olivia up from preschool, her teacher pulled me aside and said she had been meaning to tell me something. Immediately I started thinking of things we had missed or something embarrassing Olivia might have done. Instead, Ms. Liz said that she wanted me to know how well behaved Olivia is – all the time, she said. In fact, she added, Olivia is a model for the other children. I could barely get out the classroom door my heart was so swelled with pride!! I also made note of the fact that I assumed the worst when the teacher wanted to speak with me – a reminder to hope for the best & believe the best in people!

Last week I had a sitter for a couple hours and I was able to drop in on Livy’s school for the first time. For the hour that I was there, they were in “centers” and divided into groups of 2. Each center provided something different for the children to do for about 10 minutes. There was the art center where Ms. Liz helped them stamp pictures of leaves & flowers.

And the writing center where Ms. Karla helped the children trace zigzags.

There was also a music center, a home living center (toy kitchen), an imaginative play center (little people castle) & another writing center that had magnadoodles & chalkboards.

It was so fun to see my big girl at school. She was so attentive and sweet. I wondered if she was always so good – and turns out she is!! I’m proud of you, sweetheart!!

TIR: The Prologue

I know all of you were worried about me, so I wanted to let you know that I survived the Texas Independence Relay. Let’s start with the basics. Yes, we finished all 203 .2 miles, but you’ll have to wait to find out how we did. I ran 4 legs totaling 20.5 miles. Btw, 20.5 in a day is a new distance record for me. Since it was a relay I think it is fitting that I write up the experience in a series of posts. OK, and it would be a really long post that I might not ever finish if I tried to do it all at once (notice how long it took me to get just this part out).

A team of 10 people in two vans involves some logistical challenges. Luckily, our team captain, Chris, had run it last year and was all over it and, of course, it was powered by LabVIEW.  Race day came and we loaded up our two vans Saturday morning and headed down to Gonzales. The beginning of the race was kind of anti-climatic. Since there were a wide variety of teams running at different speeds, some teams started as early as 6 AM while we started at about 1 PM. So every once in a while they would fire the canon and a team would take off running. The canon was a replica of the famed “Come and Take It” canon, which was actually quite small. To top it off, when it was our turn to start we didn’t even get the canon. They told our team captain to hit a gong. Then we stood around looking at each other. The wind blew the gong over as we tried to figure out if we had officially “started” and then a photographer told us to run. So we did.

The race started with a 1.1 mile “prologue” which the entire team runs together. Trying to not look too much like the weak link, I kept up with their 7 minute mile pace alright. It was enough to get the heart rate up and a little sweat going, just so that I could jump in the rest van. We left the active van of five people with the runner and the four of us drove ahead four legs where we were supposed to rest. That took us to Shiner, Texas and the transition point was next to the high school track. Laying beside the track on a blanket with a towel over my head reminded me of my high school track days.  Which for the record, my event was the 200 meters, not 200 miles. I was able to rest, but I could tell that getting any sleep over the course of this race was going to be tough.

Coming soon… TIR: Leg 1

St. Patrick’s Day 2009 (with a flashback to 2008)

A traditional Irish prayer:

May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face.
And rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.

Read more on the life of St. Patrick.

A traditional Irish saying (you gotta love Irish humor):

May those who love us love us.
And those that don’t love us,
May God turn their hearts.
And if He doesn’t turn their hearts,
May he turn their ankles,
So we’ll know them by their limping.

Check out The History Channel for a very nice tribute to St. Patrick’s Day.

The girls have Irish on both sides making them more Irish than their parents! Last year we had a very festive St. Patrick’s Day in San Antonio where they dyed the river green and held a riverboat parade!

And the “big” girls look so little in the pictures!

It was a very special St. Patrick’s Day because we got to celebrate with the IowAndrews!!

This year, we had a very simple celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, but we did manage to dye our milk green at breakfast . . .

And lounge around with our homemade St. Patrick’s Day pillowcases from Grandma Andrews . . .

All the while listening to The Irish Tenors & Celtic Woman on Pandora,

but Grandma & Grandpa Kane were listening to The Irish Tenors LIVE!

Hope you had a very Happy St. Patrikck’s Day!