Grasslands Trail Run

On Saturday I ran my first ever trail race.  As I have mentioned in previous posts I have been training this winter/spring for the half marathon.

Sara, Abe, and I woke up at 5:30 Saturday morning and made the drive out to LBJ National Grasslands near Decatur, TX...which is about an hour and a half north of Dallas.  The weather Saturday morning was both good and bad.  Storms were rolling through the area bringing lots of rain, lightning, and hail.  This weather continued during the race.  The rain was actually very refreshing and helped to pack down the mostly sandy trail.  The lightning was scary right over head when all the runners were exposed out in the middle of the fields.

Trail races are very different from road races.  Obviously, they are run on a very different type of terrain which makes race management more difficult because most of the trails are remote not allowing volunteers to be able to access most of the route.  I say this because the start of the race got off to a little bit of a rough start.  I started in the lead pack of about 10 people and about a half mile into the run we all took a wrong turn.  We were supposed to be following the blue trail on the map above but somehow missed the first major turn to the left.  Colored blazes mark the trail similar to hiking trails along with colored flags attached to trees limbs to mark turns.  This wrong turn added about an extra mile and a half to the run.  So my 13.1 mile race turned into a 14.5 mile race.  I was pretty bummed about it, not because I was trying to win but because I wanted to know what my legitimate trail half marathon time would be compared to on a road.  The rest of the race went relatively smoothly though.  After passing all the slower people/walkers (which is quite a task on a single track trail) who didn't miss the turn, it was smooth sailing.  With all the rain the trail got pretty muddy and slick in areas, so trying not to fall was a challenge.  With the detour, I ended up finishing the 14.5 miles 2:00 hours.  That was good enough for 15th place out of the 300 or so racers.  With all the rain, mud, lightning, and the detour I was happy with the finish.  I really enjoyed the trail run.  It was a much different experience than a road race.  A lot less people are involved and the trails are much more fun to get out and run on.  I'm going to find my next race to sign up for soon.  I'm thinking it is going to be a trail 50K sometime in June.

Here are a few pics that Abe took at Grasslands:

How To: Get Out of Cleaning the Dishes

Life here in Dallas has been pretty good lately. We continue to explore new areas, I am learning my way around (needing my GPS less and less), and we have met some new people! I have had a bit of change of heart and am actually starting to enjoy our new city (mostly new to me). We have also had some visitors recently which has been fun!

As I mentioned before, I have really been working on my housewife skills. It has been a little more challenging now that I am working, but I think I put forth good effort. Throughout the week I usually cook and continue to try new recipes. I am not sure about your household, but in ours there is usually conversation about who has to do the dishes after dinner. Anyways, I thought I would share my 'how to' on getting out of cleaning the dishes. Stay with me here, the following information is important and goes with my tutorial.  This week Abe is in town for his spring break and Kyle has been wanting to make his Red Beans and Rice recipe. I decided to take a nap on Sunday instead of going to the grocery store, so I hit up Kroger after work on Monday. I got home quite a bit later than usual and had the task to finish up preparing dinner while Kyle went for a run and Abe went for a bike ride. Typically Kyle runs shorter distances during the week (4-5 miles a night). However, he skipped the day before so he was planning to put in some extra miles (aka be gone longer than usual). I had the task to chop some onions and add them to the other ingredients at a VERY specific time. I will speed up the story and get to the good stuff... fast forward, Kyle and Abe are gone now and I am multi-tasking (putting groceries away, watching the Biggest Loser finale, and chopping onions). As I am chopping away, I look away for a SPLIT SECOND to check the other ingredients... and SLICE! Pause....AHHHHHHHH! Let me add to the story that as Kyle and I were recently married we were very fortunate to receive a very nice set of knives. Me and these knives have a love/hate relationship. I love that they cut EVERYTHING so easily, but hate that sometimes everything means my fingers. Back to the story, the "slice" is no longer the onion, but my thumb!!!! Unlike several of my other knicks with the knife, this one is a bit more intense. I will leave out specific yucky details for those with sensitive stomachs. I work in the healthcare field so blood and such doesn't typically bother me. However, for some reason this one REALLY bothers me and I begin to feel a bit queezy. Panic mode sets in so I immediately text Kyle, only to hear his phone ding in the other room. Let me fast forward again, the good news is my finger is still attached, I sliced the chunk off so no stitches needed! At that point my finger felt terrible and continued to bleed for quite some time... BUT I didn't have to do the dishes that night! AND Abe helped put all the groceries away! Ok, so maybe I wouldn't necessarily recommend this 'How to', but for now... it is working for me! I have been dish free all week!

Hockey

Living in a big city has a handful of perks, one of those being there are a variety professional sporting events to go to within a very convenient distance.  I have been been able to go to four Dallas Stars games since the lockout shortened season got started...two of those being against my mighty Blackhawks.  Abe came into town for his Spring Break this week and we went to the Blackhawks game last night, an absolutely dominant 8-1 win by our Blackhawks.  I was lucky enough to get four free tickets to the game from my boss.  Our company has seats about 12 rows up behind the net.  They are great seats...especially for free!  That was the second game I have been able to go to in those seats.  Here are some pictures from the four games that I have been to thus far:

January 24th against the Blackhawks

February 21st against the Canucks. Office tickets

February 23rd against the Sharks

Last night against the Blackhawks   [ 8-1!!! ] 

The Grandest Tour

If you followed by former blog, KJ's Domain, you will remember I posted about Abe going on a long road trip last summer after graduating from UT.

A local newspaper in Johnson City ran a two-week article about Abe and his buddy David Moulton last month about their experiences on their road trip.  Lots of good stuff.  I got to the privilege of taking a similar two week long road trip after I graduated from UT in 2009.  I would highly recommend a trip like this to anyone who would ever have the chance.  There is lots to see out there in this great country of ours...

Here are the links to the two-part, two week article:

http://www.newsandneighboronline.com/022313_1.htm

http://newsandneighboronline.com/030213_1.htm


Check out Abe's blog for more stories and pictures.

Run. February.

Another month of running down...

On Saturday the 23rd, I participated in the Form Follows Fitness 5k with some people from work.  I ran the 5k in 19:08, good enough for 13th place overall, 2nd in my age group.  That was by far the fastest I have ever ran a 5k.  My training hasn't been geared towards shorter races, but I am clearly getting faster through the addition of the miles.  My legs are feeling pretty good so far.

Totals:
January:  61.66 miles
February:  76.42 miles
Year:  138.08 miles