Prayer Request

Please pray for this little guy today, and in the next few days. He is going to have open heart surgery at the University of Kentucky Children's hospital early tomorrow morning. You can read more about the procedure and why he is having the surgeon at Athan's Journey (www.athansjourney.blogspot.com). His parents started this blog when he was just days old, and had to be admitted to the hospital for an extended amount of time. This precious baby boy has grown leaps and bounds over the past 11 months, and we can't wait to celebrate his 1st birthday on May 29th.

Please pray for his parents, our dear friends Ryan and Amberly Strebeck, that they may be comforted in this time. Please pray for his 3 year old big sister, Morgan, that she would know her baby brother is going to be ok. Please pray for Athan's grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other family members for safe travel as they journey to Kentucky to be with the Strebecks over the next few weeks. Please pray for his surgeon, Dr. Plunkett, as he prepares for and completes the surgery. And please pray for Athan, that God will be with him (as He has been since he was in Amber's womb) that he will come through this procedure stronger than ever, that his heart will be made whole.

Blizzard on a Hot Tin Roof!

Yesterday, I tried the new Blizzard of the Month at Dairy Queen - the Tin Roof Blizzard. It was nothing short of amazing. Vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup, chocolate covered peanuts, and brownie pieces. Hmm, Goobers never tasted so good.

On a different note, marathon training has been going pretty well. The weather and my work schedule have done a pretty good job at disrupting my schedule, but I still feel good about a 4:30 finish in May. I have decided that I won't be doing any more Spring marathons. It is too hard to train through these brutal Kentucky winters (it's brutal for a Texas gal, at least!), and my Marches are pretty much dedicated to working 80-hour work weeks. It's been really difficult getting back on track after March for a full marathon, so from now on I am going to reserve the Spring for half-marathons, 10ks, and 5ks. There are several options for Fall marathons in this area, so I will possibly be able to do 2 full-marathons in the Fall/early Winter. I'm still hoping for Chicago in October 2009.

I have my last 20 miler this weekend, and then I will begin a two week taper. Before my October marathon I had a three week taper, and it felt too long. So, I am kind of happy that I didn't get to do the 20 miles yesterday (it was raining and in the 30s all day and I have a huge event at work this week and didn't want to risk pneumonia) so...I pushed the 20 miler to next Sunday. Temperatures are supposed to be back up in the 60s and 70s this week, so I'm hoping the good weather will hold out. I went to the gym and ran about 7 miles on the treadmill, and then ate my bad weather blues away with the delectable Tin Roof blizzard.

Welcome to the Family

Chad and I were very pleased to welcome a new member into our family this past weekend - a 2002 Volkswagen Passat. It is my absolute dream car and I am so happy that we bought it! It was sad to see Monty go (my 98 Mitsubishi Montero Sport that was faithfully there for me for the past 6 years) but it was definitely time to put her out to pasture.

Chad and I got a really great deal from a dealership outside of Louisville (www.streamline-automotive.com) and the whole process of selling a car/buying a new car was surprisingly smooth and easy.

And, I had the delectable treat of coke and peanuts on the way to Louisville - it was a great way to start the weekend, dare I say a good luck charm.

In training news, I did 16 miles on Sunday and felt really great. I was able to maintain a 9:30 pace all the way through, and I finished feeling like I still had some kick in me. I will do 20 this Saturday, and then 20 or 22 on the 9th, depending on how I am feeling. After the completion of this run, I will start my three week taper. I stocked up today on Luna Moons and Cliff Shot Bloks, so I should be good to go for the final push of training.

I'm In Love...

...with Diet Coke Plus. It's been a brief relationship (I've only had two) but it has been magical. It's strange because I absolutely abhor Diet Coke. But there is something about the plus in Diet Coke Plus that does it for me.

Wikipedia states that "the flavor is slightly different from regular Diet Coke, the antioxidant Diet Coke Plus is flavored with green tea." This perplexes me even more because if there is something I hate more than Diet Coke, it's green tea. But mixed together, they make something very magical.

In other Coke news, I'm very excited about a special treat that I am going to have this weekend. Chad and I are taking a short road trip to Louisville on Saturday to go car shopping - and I've decided that on the drive I'm going to have a bottle of Coke with dry roasted, salted peanuts poured in it. Chad thinks that it is pretty sad that I'm so excited about this and have talked about it every day of the week thus far - but it is so good. I remember when my sister and I were little my dad would take us fishing at Lake Arlington and we would have peanuts and Coke. I haven't had it in years, but I saw something about it online a few days ago and have practically been salivating since.

Rabbys for Sale

Happy Easter! This morning, as I was taking our dog for her morning walk, I saw a sign in a neighbor's yard advertising "Rabbys for Sale." I was pretty perplexed - what exactly were they selling? Rabies? Possibly rabbis? I'm guessing that rabby is a new term for a bunny rabbit. Sales appear to be booming - tis the season for rabbys!

We are winding down after a late Easter lunch with good food and good friends. I'm still trying to get back on track with my training schedule after a few hectic weeks at work. I did a 16 miler this morning at the crack of dawn and it went pretty well. I will do my first 20 miler next Sunday, and then probably one more before I start to taper for the Flying Pig in May.

An Egg McMuffin is a terrible thing to waste...

Disaster struck early and it struck hard for me at work this morning. McDonald's was very kind to donate breakfast for all of our phonebank volunteers this morning - and I pass by the McDonald's on my drive in to the studio - so I volunteered to stop and pick up the food.

Imagine this - 15 Egg McMuffins, 15 sausage biscuits, 15 Cinna-melts, 25 hasbrowns, and 15 large (steaming hot) cups of coffee. All packed into one very large cardboard box. The guy at McDonalds loaded the box into my car and off I went. I parked at the front of our building and traversed my way through ice and snow to get to the front doors. There are two sets of doors to get through to get into the building, and I made it through the first set just fine. The second set was a little more tricky, and I carefully balanced the box on my lifted knee as I tried to wrangle with the door. The entire time our security guard was just standing there looking at me...such a gentleman. Just as I thought, you know - I am going to put the box down and prop open the door -kerploosh! The bottom of the box broke loose and so did a torrent of scalding hot, premium roast McDonalds coffee. From the knees down, my precious khakis were now steaming with piping hot coffee. Have I mentioned how hot the coffee was? Yes, I'm pretty sure I have third degree burns on my legs and feet. At this point, the security guard opens the door and says "You know, I was just thinking that I should have opened the door for you."

So, there I was, standing in a steaming, soggy pile of coffee, hash browns, and Egg McMuffins. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. But I ended up laughing hysterically - Megan, if you had only been there it would have made the situation perfect. Luckily, most of the food was salvageable, but the cups of coffee and soaked packs of sugar had to be tossed. The jury is still out on what can be done with the scalded flesh on my legs, and I fear the worst for my khakis and favorite pair of argyle socks.

Getting Back

on the wagon. I've officially fallen off the marathon training wagon, but today I am making the attempt to get back on. March means it's pledge drive time in PBS land, so my schedule always gets really hectic this time of the year. At the station I work at, we pledge live on-air from March 1st-16th. It's a really fun time, but it starts to get crazy juggling all of my normal day to day responsibilites in the office, plus all the work and pre-pledge and post-pledge things that have to get taken care of in the studio. It makes for long days and 7 day, 70 hour work weeks, and I always have a difficult time juggling my work schedule and training. Last year it wasn't so bad because I was training for a half marathon, and it was relatively easy to get back on track with my mileage. With a full marathon training plan, I've found it's not so easy to catch back up. I've only really strayed from the plan this past week, so I hope too much damage hasn't been done.

Luckily, I am off all day today and I am going to get an 18-miler in. It is cold and raining/sleeting, so I am going to head to the gym in about an hour and do the run in three 6 mile segments - just to break up the monotony of being on a treadmill for three hours. I'm really hoping that next week I can get back on track and stick to my schedule - I might modify it slightly since I have been so fatigued from work. I would rather get something in and than do nothing at all. The good news is that starting on the 17th everything will go back to normal.

I think I am really stressing about my training more than usual because I want to do really well in Cincinnati in May. My family is going to be there and I am going to be running with my sister Megan, and I just want to be able to keep up. And I would love to run it in 4:30. This would knock about 35 minutes off of my previous marathon time, which seems crazy, but I really feel like I can do it. I guess we'll see!