Brian and I have always talked about how we wanted to find a good, spacious place to take Gatsby where he could run around off-leash. We can take him to a dog park and he does fine there, but he still gets a little intimidated by the other dogs, so we wanted a place where we could take him where he could run around solo. It also needed to be a place that's fenced in because he would definitely make a break for it if he saw a pepperoni truck drive by. :-)
So, when we started playing kickball, we realized that the field that we play on would be perfect as an impromptu, massive dog run. It's completely gated and usually pretty desolate on the weekends. (It's also not a super incredibly nice field, so it's not like we're taking him out at Knightdale High School or something.)
We took him this afternoon and he had the BEST time. He ran around so fast and played fetch with Brian. After about 20 minutes of crazy-fast running, he collapsed into the grass and just rolled around. It was too cute. He also drank a TON of water from this cool water bottle that we bought at REI last month.
We took a few pictures (http://picasaweb.google.com/lsleblanc82/GatsbyAtEWMS) and two good videos:
It was a fantastic Sunday afternoon!
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Fleming's | Southern Ideal Home Show | Kickball
Friday night, Brian and I decided that we wanted to go out to a fancy schmancy dinner because we hadn't been on one as a date in a very long time and it's always fun to spoil yourselves! So, we decided to go to Fleming's (one of the new restaurants at Crabtree). It was VERY good. Though, honestly, I would have probably loved it no matter what because the hostess totally made my week when we got there. I was wearing my cute blue dress that I bought in New York with a half-sweater and my favorite heels. Anyways, the hostess was like "girl, you look beautiful. I just love that dress." And then said it again when we got to the table. She might be my most favorite person in the whole world this week. It was just such an unexpected compliment and totally made my night. The dress is kinda short, so I was feeling a little bit weird (I'm just not used to showing that much skin) and I annoyed poor Brian like 3 times before we left to make sure it looked OK.
So, anyway, the dinner was delicious. They served really good bread and I started with the Fleming's Salad (seasonal greens, candied walnuts, dried cranberries, tomatoes, and croutons with a lemon vinaigrette). My main entrée was a tuna mignon (cooked rare) served with a vinaigrette, halved cherry tomatoes, and three (yes, three) asparaguses. Brian had a prime ribeye and we split some parmesan peppercorn mashed potatoes (all sides are served à la carte). For dessert, we split the chocolate lava cake (rich chocolate cake with a molten chocolate center, served with vanilla ice cream and homemade whipped cream). So yummy. I very much love food. :-)
This afternoon, I went with Mike and Barb to the Southern Ideal Home Show at the State Fairgrounds.
I had a good time with them and we even saw Kevin's girlfriend Blair, who was wo-maning the TWC booth.
Other than that, I have to say that I was unimpressed. There were a ton of vendors, but I really didn't see anything new or exciting. There were some cool landscaping stands and some fun swinging hammock things, but everything else had all been done before.
And no one really had any good tips or ideas: it was mostly just here's our product and here's what it looks like installed. :-/
I think Mike and Barb got some good contacts on some different things that they want to do around their house and I wasn't really looking for anything specific, so maybe that's why I was unimpressed. However, I was looking for some cool ideas on landscaping the plant beds in our front yard, but there really wasn't a ton of that kinda stuff. Most of the outdoor stuff was on building patios. I also would have liked to see more cool organization stuff (closet and kitchen organizers, etc.), but there were only a couple booths on that and they were pretty weak.
Maybe I'm just more a fan of going to concept and idea homes to get ideas. Maybe I need the presentation inside the home to get the full effect!
This was the first time I'd ever been in any of the buildings at the fairgrounds (Dorton Arena, the Jim Graham Building, and the Exposition Center), so that was pretty cool.
Oh yeah and evidently I live in a utopia because it never even dawned on my that I might have to pay get in (I'm an idiot). Fortunately, Brian's parents spotted me $9. The sucky thing is that I had a ton of cash yesterday (from winning my March Madness bracket pool at work!), but used it all at the Teeter last night because I hate carrying cash!
So, anyway, the dinner was delicious. They served really good bread and I started with the Fleming's Salad (seasonal greens, candied walnuts, dried cranberries, tomatoes, and croutons with a lemon vinaigrette). My main entrée was a tuna mignon (cooked rare) served with a vinaigrette, halved cherry tomatoes, and three (yes, three) asparaguses. Brian had a prime ribeye and we split some parmesan peppercorn mashed potatoes (all sides are served à la carte). For dessert, we split the chocolate lava cake (rich chocolate cake with a molten chocolate center, served with vanilla ice cream and homemade whipped cream). So yummy. I very much love food. :-)
***
This afternoon, I went with Mike and Barb to the Southern Ideal Home Show at the State Fairgrounds.
I had a good time with them and we even saw Kevin's girlfriend Blair, who was wo-maning the TWC booth.
Other than that, I have to say that I was unimpressed. There were a ton of vendors, but I really didn't see anything new or exciting. There were some cool landscaping stands and some fun swinging hammock things, but everything else had all been done before.
And no one really had any good tips or ideas: it was mostly just here's our product and here's what it looks like installed. :-/
I think Mike and Barb got some good contacts on some different things that they want to do around their house and I wasn't really looking for anything specific, so maybe that's why I was unimpressed. However, I was looking for some cool ideas on landscaping the plant beds in our front yard, but there really wasn't a ton of that kinda stuff. Most of the outdoor stuff was on building patios. I also would have liked to see more cool organization stuff (closet and kitchen organizers, etc.), but there were only a couple booths on that and they were pretty weak.
Maybe I'm just more a fan of going to concept and idea homes to get ideas. Maybe I need the presentation inside the home to get the full effect!
This was the first time I'd ever been in any of the buildings at the fairgrounds (Dorton Arena, the Jim Graham Building, and the Exposition Center), so that was pretty cool.
Oh yeah and evidently I live in a utopia because it never even dawned on my that I might have to pay get in (I'm an idiot). Fortunately, Brian's parents spotted me $9. The sucky thing is that I had a ton of cash yesterday (from winning my March Madness bracket pool at work!), but used it all at the Teeter last night because I hate carrying cash!
***
We are playing kickball again with the Town of Knightdale. We have almost a completely different team (only 2 people from last season are back). I really like our team this time. Lots of really friendly people and we're all trying very hard. Bless our hearts.
Basically, we suck. We're 2-4 on the season at the halfway point. We may improve for the second half of the season, but if we don't, "oh well." It's fun and good exercise.
Thursday I caught a popfly in the outfield (catching popflys is actually more difficult than it seems). I'm pretty sure no one thought I'd catch it. Even the other team complimented me on the catch! It also was a damn good thing I caught it because there were two people on base who definitely would have scored! I also had a good kick to get on base. Yay, me.
New Running Blog!
Just a quick update to let y'all know that I started a new blog:
Runnin' Southern - http://runninsouthern.blogspot.com/
To my 4 readers on this blog: Don't worry! I'm still keeping this one going, but I'm hoping to not bore y'all to tears about running minutia. (If you want to be bored to tears, definitely subscribe to my other blog!)
I figure this way I can focus this blog on personal things going on in life and keep the new blog just for running.
I want to get more involved in the running blogging community and don't want those folks to have to filter through personal posts about Brian and I jetting off to the beach or to App. games.
Runnin' Southern - http://runninsouthern.blogspot.com/
To my 4 readers on this blog: Don't worry! I'm still keeping this one going, but I'm hoping to not bore y'all to tears about running minutia. (If you want to be bored to tears, definitely subscribe to my other blog!)
I figure this way I can focus this blog on personal things going on in life and keep the new blog just for running.
I want to get more involved in the running blogging community and don't want those folks to have to filter through personal posts about Brian and I jetting off to the beach or to App. games.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Go big or go home!
That's what my sister told me when I solicited comments from my Twitter and Facebook friends a few weeks ago about the Marine Corps Marathon.
So, this morning, at 11:36, I went big (and stayed home): I am officially registered for the 35th Annual Marine Corps Marathon on 10/31/2010 and I am SO PUMPED about it. Dad and brother (-in-law) Clay are also registered!
Technically, registration wasn't supposed to start until noon, but because I'm a fantastically OCD fool about this kinda stuff, I knew when it opened early at 11:30! (I clicked that refresh button a lot!) While I was registering, I was e-mailing and texting Dad and Clay so that they could get their registrations in early.
The MCM had 30,000 spots open today (they've already filled other spots with military registration and other early qualifiers) and it does typically sell out, although it usually takes a week or so, so I wasn't really worried that we weren't going to get in, but we all wanted to make sure we got in as soon as possible. It's the 5th largest marathon in the country. More than 11,000 people had signed up by 8 p.m. tonight!
Twenty of the 26 miles are flat and nearly all of the hills are within the first 8 miles. Unfortunately, it ends going uphill, but I've heard that it's a short hill and that you're so pumped by the crowd that your adrenaline pulls you through.
The course starts in Arlington and hugs the Potomac River for a lot of it. It goes by the National Mall and hits up a lot of the major D.C. sites, ending at the Iwo Jima Memorial. Because it's run by the Marines, it has really good organization and the Marines staff the course and the aid stations, which is very cool. Official Course Map.
Each runner is also "trackable" with technology. Spectators can sign up for e-mail or text message alerts that track the start and finish times as well as each 5K during the race. There's also an online map that tracks runners in real-time on a course map. Very cool stuff!
I am so incredibly excited to have my first marathon as a big time one. I'm really looking forward to having a big crowd of spectators through a lot of the course. Hopefully the weather will be good. The average high is 63° and the average low is 44° for October 31, which is an ideal temperature range for running.
The three of us are using the same training schedule and it was created by running coach Jeff Galloway (a former member of the U.S. Olympic Track Team and a contributor to Runner's World). This is the same guy who created the half-marathon training schedule that I used and that worked wonderfully. It's not too time intensive: just two 3-4 mile runs during the week and then a long run on the weekend. As the training distances get closer to marathon distance, the longest runs are three weeks apart. Long (and HOT) runs will be as follows:
My ultimate goal is to finish and, of course, stay injury free while training. But I'm thinking right now that my time goal is to finish in under 4:30. That would involve keeping the same pace that I kept in the half marathon, but I expect to be significantly stronger and more fit by October 31, so it should be doable. I'll definitely know more about reasonable pace goals by the end of the summer. (The MCM has a 14 minute/mile pace requirement, which shouldn't be a problem barring any major crises.)
So, that's it for now. It's definitely marathon fever in my little corner of the globe! :-)
So, this morning, at 11:36, I went big (and stayed home): I am officially registered for the 35th Annual Marine Corps Marathon on 10/31/2010 and I am SO PUMPED about it. Dad and brother (-in-law) Clay are also registered!
Technically, registration wasn't supposed to start until noon, but because I'm a fantastically OCD fool about this kinda stuff, I knew when it opened early at 11:30! (I clicked that refresh button a lot!) While I was registering, I was e-mailing and texting Dad and Clay so that they could get their registrations in early.
The MCM had 30,000 spots open today (they've already filled other spots with military registration and other early qualifiers) and it does typically sell out, although it usually takes a week or so, so I wasn't really worried that we weren't going to get in, but we all wanted to make sure we got in as soon as possible. It's the 5th largest marathon in the country. More than 11,000 people had signed up by 8 p.m. tonight!
Twenty of the 26 miles are flat and nearly all of the hills are within the first 8 miles. Unfortunately, it ends going uphill, but I've heard that it's a short hill and that you're so pumped by the crowd that your adrenaline pulls you through.
The course starts in Arlington and hugs the Potomac River for a lot of it. It goes by the National Mall and hits up a lot of the major D.C. sites, ending at the Iwo Jima Memorial. Because it's run by the Marines, it has really good organization and the Marines staff the course and the aid stations, which is very cool. Official Course Map.
Each runner is also "trackable" with technology. Spectators can sign up for e-mail or text message alerts that track the start and finish times as well as each 5K during the race. There's also an online map that tracks runners in real-time on a course map. Very cool stuff!
I am so incredibly excited to have my first marathon as a big time one. I'm really looking forward to having a big crowd of spectators through a lot of the course. Hopefully the weather will be good. The average high is 63° and the average low is 44° for October 31, which is an ideal temperature range for running.
The three of us are using the same training schedule and it was created by running coach Jeff Galloway (a former member of the U.S. Olympic Track Team and a contributor to Runner's World). This is the same guy who created the half-marathon training schedule that I used and that worked wonderfully. It's not too time intensive: just two 3-4 mile runs during the week and then a long run on the weekend. As the training distances get closer to marathon distance, the longest runs are three weeks apart. Long (and HOT) runs will be as follows:
- July 10: 12 miles
- July 24: 14 miles
- Aug. 7: 17 miles
- Aug 28: 20 miles
- Sept. 18: 23 miles
- Oct. 9: 26 miles
My ultimate goal is to finish and, of course, stay injury free while training. But I'm thinking right now that my time goal is to finish in under 4:30. That would involve keeping the same pace that I kept in the half marathon, but I expect to be significantly stronger and more fit by October 31, so it should be doable. I'll definitely know more about reasonable pace goals by the end of the summer. (The MCM has a 14 minute/mile pace requirement, which shouldn't be a problem barring any major crises.)
So, that's it for now. It's definitely marathon fever in my little corner of the globe! :-)
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