Post-Carlsbad mindless chatter

It's been brought to my attention (ahem) that I haven't posted in a couple weeks.  Hum.  I have a valid excuse, really I do.  I've been computer-less.  Again.  About 3 weeks ago my laptop decided it didn't want to charge anymore.  I took it to the computer hospital and the doctor assured me it was a small fix, just needing a new jack.  Turns out a simple jack is really a whole circuit board and $450 to fix.  What!?!?  I decided it was best if the thing just died and I'd get a new one.  It hasn't arrived yet but I've pretty much stalked the Dell "Chat" center and am now on the watch list so that no one will chat with me there anymore.  I have been told the new laptop should arrive tomorrow.  We'll see.

It's not that I can't get on the desktop computer at home, I can, but I have limited time on it (sorry I haven't commented much) due to two 16-year olds who think they have priority doing homework combing social media sites.

But more so, ya all  know how much I like to include pictures and I'm too stupid to figure out how to upload pictures off my camera without taking the little memory card out and popping it in my laptop.  So pictures on today's blog are courtesy of Google Images (is that illegal?).

So, what's new since I returned home from that sweet marathon in Carlsbad....

Band geek son had a band thingie down in Colorado Springs a few days after I returned from CA and so I went for a nice run/hike at the Garden of the Gods.  Pictures from the event are on my camera but I'll steal a few for this post and re-post some later.  It was a gorgeous evening and I had a nice hike but no way the legs were going to run much.  

View of the Pikes Peak summit through some redstone rocks

• I ran a 5k 6 days post marathon.  If anyone wants to know how to run a personal worst, just sign up for one 6 days after trashing their legs running 26.2 ill-prepared miles.  That will do it!  I ran the Yeti Chase 5K in 300 degrees below zero with hurricane-forced winds with tons of hills.  Race description said it was mostly flat.  They lied.  Or maybe it was my really tired legs which made me think the hills were actually mountains, who knows, but my Nike watch time of 25:59 is now officially my worst 5k ever.  I'm okay with this actually....I told Tara the night before when we were swimming I just wanted to run about 9 min/miles and use it as a little recovery run.  But we all know how that plays out once the gun goes off....when I hit the first mile in 7:37, I knew this was no easy recovery run....and my legs let me know at mile 2 when I hit a 8:40.  Woohoo!  Overall pace: 8:22.  I used this race as Adam's virtual Freeze Your Thorns Off 5K - I hope they have category for "soonest 5k after a marathon" and I win boatloads of cash!
• I bailed on a Super Bowl 5K last weekend due to a crap load of this stuff the day before:

No sense in making my PW even worse than last weekends'.  It was free so not a big deal...still, I wanted to use it as some much-needed speedwork.

• Due to above white crap, I ran 15 miles on my treadmill today.  My legs finally felt good.  But I chaffed on my lower back where my shorts reside.  Um...in the 300 years I've been running, I have NEVER chaffed here.  Huh?  Then I got the added pleasure to sit on a wooden seat at the library for 2 1/2 hours post-run while I used the library's computer to get some work done.  I received some interesting library patrons looks when I sat sideways in the seat and then again later when I stood and hunched over to type.
• I have a 1/2 marathon this weekend.  I'm not sure why I signed up for it other than it was free and there was hardware involved.  Speedwork, free, hardware - I'm in!  I have no intention of "racing" it - I'll just use it as some tempo work - or perhaps ice skating lessons.  I am volunteering at registration before the race (thus the freebie entry...never hurts to ask the race director if you can have a comped entry for some volunteer work :)).  Today I got an email detailing my volunteer duties and the RD just happened to enclose this tidbit in the email:  We will fill the race shortly and we've even gotten some of our Olympic marathon team coming out to compete. Um...I will pull a SUAR if I happen to see Ryan or Kara or anyone from THE Olympic Marathon team...I'm guessing she means the Colorado team who ran the trials, which is still mighty impressive and pretty cool.  Unless, of course you're competing with them.  I wonder if I'll come in last place!?!  I'm so wishing I would have signed up for the "walking" division.
• In a moment of temporary weakness, I signed up for the Chicago Marathon last Friday.  This absolutely does not mesh well with the Pikes Peak Marathon the end of August.  I received an email on Friday morning stating the race was almost full after opening 2 days earlier and all I could think of was how I didn't want to miss out on registration.  So I registered.  I obviously need some sort of racing interventionist to sit down and slap me.  I have no idea what I'm going to do about Pikes Peak and Chicago.

• Speaking of moments of weaknesses....I'm doing a 50k in Iowa in a few weeks.  Um....this is sort of comical - I hope you're all laughing!
• I am going to be a head coach for the Girls on the Run program.  We start training on March 5th and the girls' big 5k race will be May 12th.  I'm so excited about this opportunity.
• Finally, I'll be running with the team I'm racing with this year, Team BRC, on Saturday morning and I've contacted the group coordinator and they are all IN on running for Beth's virtual run in honor of her cousin, Sherry, who was abducted while out for a run last month in Montana.  We'll all be sporting the bibs as we run....I hope you'll all be doing the same.

Run strong, my friends!!


Jill