Crazy week of birthdays, guests, golf championships, and races - oh, and the heat...

I can't believe how fast time has flown by.  The last time I blogged I was looking ahead a week to the Fourth of July and the 5K run I was going to do with my daughter.  Since then there has been little time to write.  Although I hope to get back to daily blogging this next week, I thought I would hit the past week and a half's highlights here in brief.

Family visit

Yay! House guests!  Well, in this case, house guest.  We don't get a lot of visitors our way, but we were excited to have Hubby's mom here for a week long visit.  She helped keep us entertained during the heat wave.

Heat wave

Did I mention a heat wave?  Oh yeah, it was miserable.  Most of you probably already know what this is like since unless you live in Nome, Alaska, it seems to have affected everybody.  In our neck of the woods, we were seeing temps in the mid-to-upper 90s with humidity.  That pushed the heat index upwards to about 200 degrees, I believe.  To say the people in Northeast Wisconsin are unhappy with this turn of events is a gross understatement.  Sub-zero temps and blizzard - no problem.  Heat wave - problem.  Anyway, the heat made volunteering at the US Women's Open that much more fun.

US Women's Open

Hubby and I were both excited to have the opportunity to volunteer our time at the US Women's Open this past week.  I worked for three days, and I enjoyed every one.  The week started out with a bang for me.  Well, a bang of thunder.  I had no sooner gotten onto the grounds for my Tuesday shift when I was told by a sheriff's deputy to clear the golf course because there was a storm cell moving in.  I then got to stand in the cart barn for over an hour while we watched the clouds and rain move in.

Unfortunately, that storm turned out to be pretty close to the best weather all week.  The rest of that day and the next few days were a miserable sauna of sunshine.  My job as marshall had me out in the sun standing the whole time, but it was cool nonetheless.  There is something about having the power to tell people - politely, of course - to shut up that is satisfying.  I also got to move some ropes around to let players walk through and keep the riffraff - er, patrons - away, and tell people not to take pictures.  It was a very glamorous job (sic), which I thoroughly enjoyed.

My green to guard my first day.  Hole 7 green.  I got to watch them cut the pin hole.  Quite the scientific process.

In exchange for my time, I got to watch the best women golfers in the world at their game.  That part was very motivating and even got me thinking I should bring my clubs up from the basement and dust them off.  Although I enjoyed watching the golf, the best part was having E. and LG come out during the practice round on Tuesday to watch some golf with us and then go autograph hunting.  Amazingly, they collected around 20 to 30 autographs - from some top players too like Michelle Wie and Paula Creamer.  Very fun.

It's hard work collecting autographs when it is 100 degrees.  Gatorade is a must.

E.'s birthday

One day this week was completely consumed with E's birthday.  My little girl has turned 7! Unbelievable.

Fox Firecracker 5K

So, the Fox Firecracker 5K....the last thing I posted about before going unintentionally on blogger hiatus.  That unfortunately didn't work out like my head-in-the-clouds hopes would have had it.  First off, it was a miserably hot morning.  I mean, it was Mississippi hot.  Stepping outside and doing nothing caused an outbreak of sweat and complaints.  So, poor E. was really put to the test.  She was game enough leading up to the start of the race, though.  She was excited to cheer her brother and a friend of hers on in the kids race.  Then we gamely walked to the start line.  She was a little quiet, but she seemed happy enough.  We started off running and here is where my dream scenario ends.

At about a third of a mile into it, E. started walking and decided she didn't want to run again.  She was done.  Boom.  Door closed.  The race was shut down for her.  I tried to motivate her, I tried to get her to do a run/walk, but she wasn't having it.  She said she had a pain in her tummy, which didn't surprise me since she hardly ate any breakfast and refused to eat the banana I had brought for her.  When she told me though that she hadn't realized how long 3 miles was going to be (this was at the half-mile mark), I have to admit to an unproud mommy moment as I about lost it.  Before signing her up I explained to her in every way I knew how just how far she had to go.  She's run mile races before; she's run a two-miler.  I thought for sure telling her to take her two-miler and then add her one-miler on the back of it would give her a clear idea, but apparently not.  Anyway, as luck would have it, the grandmas and grandpa were walking the 5K and were closing in on us fast.  As soon as they caught up, I deposited her in their capable hands and continued running.

Looking back, I feel that a "good mom" would have stayed and walked with her daughter.  Unfortunately, I was hot and tired, too, and I had to go to the bathroom, so my good humor refused to surface.  I found myself literally wanting to run away rather than listen to her complain the whole way about what I had gotten her into.  In the end, though, I finished the race with a nice little running ego boost for me.  Since I was literally starting from the back of the pack, that ensured that I was passing people the whole way to the finish line.  It was a fun race, too, in the sense that I didn't feel any need to catch a certain time, so I stopped to talk to a couple of people along the way - one was a friend doing intersection control and the other was Hubby who I found right before the three-mile mark.  As the first water station had run out of cups, I sent him running back with a bottle of water to find E.  Apparently, she didn't really want the water but he walked the rest of the way with her.  Once they got to about a half mile to go, he convinced her to run the rest of the way in with him - and she gave me a big smile as she passed by.  So, in the end, the race wasn't what I wanted.  I wish, too, that I had stuck it out with her rather than get impatient.  However, she did finish a 5K event, and no one can take that away from her.  I am very proud of her for for finishing.

I wish this wasn't so blurry, because there really were a couple of smiles there. 

Injured Reserve

So, as far as my running has been going, it has been extremely hit or miss. Out of the past two weeks, I have had fully eight days with no running.  That hip/glute/hamstring thing that I briefly mentioned in a previous post are still stubbornly hanging in there.  I am stretching, rolling, and icing like crazy, and that is helping, but it is slow going.  I think I am done with speed work for the summer and am going into proactive protection mode.  What does that mean?  Well, I just made the term up, but basically it means that I am going to go back to what has worked for me in the past.  More on this later.

So, that is basically what is happening in this Average Runner's life.  If you have stuck with me to this point, then you deserve also to know that you should STAY TUNED!  I actually have not one, not two, not three, but FOUR giveaways in the works for you all.  I know, I know, I haven't done too many of these, but I find them kind of fun, so I am excited to say that I will have some coming up.

Happy Running!

One Week Until My Daughter's First Ever 5K - With Me!

In exactly one week, my darling daughter plans to toe the start line of her first 5K event - with me!  I am over-the-top excited, and a little bit confused.  I mean, didn't she just learn to walk last week or something?  Where has the time gone?

Maudlin reminiscences and heartfelt mommy moment aside, I am pretty darn geeked that I can share something that I love - running - with my soon-to-be 7-year-old.  I have dreams of guiding her gently through the miles, urging her not to start out too fast, cheering her on when things get tough, and then victoriously running across the finish line - hands held high over our heads together - we did it!

Okay, so that is where I wake up from my daydream.  In all reality, I see this scenario unfolding in one of two ways:

Way 1: The gun goes off and the race starts.  It'll be packed, so I'll have to keep a close eye on her in the first few minutes, but as soon as she sees a hole, off she sprints with me trying desperately to hang on to her pace, only to have her stop to walk suddenly the first time she realizes she is out of breath.  I see the race continuing as a series of rabid sprint sessions interspersed with frequent walk breaks - Galloway-style. 

So, that is the Good Way.

Way 2: We start out running adequately (sprinting or not) and we continue to run until somewhere along the route when she suddenly realizes what she has gotten herself into.  The rest of the event will be a miserable complain fest as I beg, plead, and cajole her to keep going at a walk so we can finish the race and get to the apple pie.  

(Seriously, there is pie at the end.  I know, I know,.... enough to keep me motivated, but a 7-year-old?)

Okay, so this is all tongue-in-cheek, but witness the following....

Exhibit A:  E. does not want to practice for this run.  Whenever the idea comes up, it is batted down like a good idea gone bad.

Exhibit B:  At our summer fun run series last week, E. - who had the choice to run the quarter-mile or half-mile distance - chose the quarter-mile, even though once she turns 7 she'll have to go to the half-mile anyway and even though she knows she has the 5K on her calendar.

Exhibit C:  E. was very excited to run a 2-Miler this past winter, and run it she did.  However, it took her over 40 minutes and there was apparently a lot of misery along the way.

In her defense, for whatever reason, E. still remains very excited about this event.  I am just hoping that the excitement of the idea is enough to propel her three miles down the road.

Finishing up a half-mile event in April.

So, more than anything, I am really excited and curious to see how this all unfolds. Whether it is good, bad, or ugly, the event will no doubt offer something for us both to learn, and the best part is that we'll get to spend some time together - something that we surprisingly have little opportunity to do.

In my heart, I hope that this isn't really just a way for her to find time to spend with me.  What a sad state of affairs if a 7-year-old feels she has to run a 5K to have some alone time with mom.  Either that, or she thinks she'll get a bunch of sports beans and Gatorade out of the deal - which she will, no doubt.  Well, that and apple pie.

If you have kids, have you gotten them into running?  Do they love it? Hate it?  Could care less?