Second Time Around

I finished my second half marathon today. It took me three minutes longer than my first, but I count that as a success considering how poorly prepared I felt. Oh my gracious, the HILLS in the last 2 miles about killed me dead. It was a down and back (we ran 6 and a half miles, then turned around and ran back along the same course), and as we ran the first mile, I turned to my friend and said, "You know, we're gonna have to run UP these hills at the END of the race". It was hard. It pushed me to my limit. As I approached the finish line, I was running amongst all these 'fit people', and it occurred to me. I am a 'fit person'... and it feels good.

Updates

I have been away from my blog for nearly two months. I've missed writing, but life has just gotten in the way lately. I've been spread thin and when something has to give... things like keeping the house (mostly) picked up and making sure my kids are fed are a little higher on the priority list than the blog, ya know? So here's what's new in my world:

After an appeal from me and conversations with our district benefits manager as well as a manager at the insurance company, my surgery has been paid for (and not by me!). Hooray! That was a huge weight off my shoulders.

My vacuum is back and working better than ever. Dyson honored my warranty (even though I never registered it) and paid for the repairs as well as shipping both ways. I am very pleased with this company's customer service! Hooray again!

My garage door ended up being jammed and took about half an hour and only $40 to fix! Hooray times three!

We had a leak in the laundry room and thought the washer was broken (it IS over 15 years old, after all), but it turns out it was a pipe that had a leak. It also took under an hour to fix and would have been about $100 bucks. However, when I called they were really busy and had an emergency (an 80 something year old widow had water leaking for several days before she realized it, and the ceiling was caving in). So, they came out and put a temporary patch on the pipe until he could come back and fix it right. No problem. Except that they charged for the labor for the first visit too. I sorta think that it's not MY fault they're busy. It seems like I shouldn't have to pay for them to do a quick fix because someone else's problem is more emergent than mine, and they don't have time to do it when I call. What do you guys think? Either way though, it ended up being MUCH cheaper than a new washer so... HOORAY AGAIN!

So things are moving along nicely, right? Life is looking up for us. Things are going our way. Well, I am warning you all that this may be a dangerous attitude to have because anytime I start to feel like things are rolling along well, a little (or sometimes BIG) wrinkle gets thrown into my plan. This time, the wrinkle came in the form of a broken husband. Yes, Zack is broken. More specifically, his right leg is broken, and all of his ligaments are torn off his ankle. You see, he was trying to play hockey. The only problem is, he can't ice skate and ice skating and hockey... they kind of go hand in hand. After having surgery to have a screw put in his ankle, and being instructed not to bear any weight on it for TWO MONTHS, I think it's safe to say that he will be strictly watching hockey from the safety of the bleachers from now on. I realize that there are far worse health issues that we could be dealing with, but it is a hassle for a large busy family. He is driving now which is helpful (but I'm not certain it's legal).

I am running my second half marathon in a few days, and I am NOT prepared (AT ALL). Training in Northern Colorado in the winter is hard, to say the least. It gets dark early, it's cold, the roads are usually covered in ice and snow, and I am busy shuttling kids around. The treadmill is only an option for short runs because the gym has a 30 minute limit on the treadmills... and there are treadmill Nazis hovering around watching your time when it's busy. So, my goal for Sunday's race is to finish. Honestly, the reason I signed up for the race was to motivate me to keep in shape through the winter, and I have stayed in my goal weight range and stayed in shape (just not in 'running thirteen miles' shape). I am looking forward to getting away with my running buddies for a couple of nights though, as well as a little 'big city' shopping.