Happy Birthday, Mom!

As we are all celebrating Memorial Day today, my family is also celebrating a very important birthday today... my Mom. (And roommate). Brad and I met my mom, Morgan, and Tabby at Joe's Crab Shack. The staff sang to my mom and Brad was forced to wear a bib while eating a large portion of crab legs. I actually think I still have pieces of crab in my hair from him breaking the crab open in search for the meat inside. It was very entertaining. Poor Brad had to spend the rest of the afternoon stuck in the corner of his apartment studying for his boards.

Happy Birthday, Mom! Thank you for everything you do. I am so fortunate to have a roommate who laughs at my jokes, helps me with my homework, pays my rent... even if I am going on 25 years old this year. Now, that's LOVE!

This week I'm prepping for the Dam to Dam which is in T-4 days! Last Thursday I ran 10.5 miles. Felt great. I'm ready to go. Ready to rock. Ready to run. Can't wait! The down part (aside from the 12.something miles I have to run Saturday morning) is the race starts at 7am. Which means I have to get up at, like, 5:30am. Seriously. And I'm also celebrating Brad's 26th birthday in Kansas City Saturday night... it's going to be quite the weekend! I'm looking forward to it!

I can't sign off without leaving a few pictures from this Memorial Weekend at my home base. Just so you guys can fall in love with my adorable little niece as much as I have the past 5 months!

Cured.

So after my last post I decided I needed to take a chill pill with my running. Needless to say, I didn't run the next day. Or the next. However, the NEXT day I ran... [insert drum roll]... 9.5 MILES! What's up now "runner's anxiety?" It felt awesome. I'm not gonna lie, I kinda felt like Forest Gump. But when I finally got to my house all of a sudden I couldn't move. I couldn't get a glass of water. I couldn't make my dinner. All I could do was moan. Painnnn, ohhhhh the pain. My knees. My joints. I was starving for food and I just starred at the cabinets in hope that something would whip itself together and be placed in front of me. I think my mom got sick of my pathetic self pity and told me she'd make me some toast and eggs. "Toast and Eggs? Mom you're a GENIUS! That's exactly what I need!" I plopped myself into a hot tub and... I hate to go on a tangent but I'm sorry baths are so boring. I sat in there, awkwardly, starring at the wall, trying to think of something to think about but my brain felt like I just took the MCATS (yes, I realize I don't know what that feels like... but that's what I imagine it feels like!) After the water got cold enough to give me goosebumps I inched myself out of the tub and eventually downstairs where I was welcomed with a large plate of protein and carbs! Can't complain about living at Mom's at times like this...


I was so motivated that I convinced my sister, Allison, to do a 10K with me on Saturday for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. For those of you who don't know, Allison has been training for the Dam to Dam with me. After some convincing she agreed. Friday night I went out to dinner with Brad and prepared my body with a lot of carbs. I must say, it's one of the perks to training for this half-marathon. No-guilt carbs... aaaand I may or may not have snuck a few glasses of wine in there! Healthy heart, right?


8:00am Saturday morning: On your marks, get set, GO. Allison and I were off... like a herd of turtles Can it be considered a herd if there was only two of us?... anyway... A somewhat grueling two laps around Raccoon river, 1 hour and 8 minutes later... 10K. Check. (yes, that's roughly a 10 minute mile. However, I felt like we were booking it!) I can't go without mentioning the fact on our second lap we looked as far ahead as possible and there wasn't a person in sight... as far behind us as possible and there wasn't a person in sight. I couldn't help but wonder are we that slow? or are we that fast? We were "booking it" after all. After viewing the official times I learned there were a few stragglers behind us but apparently everyone else were professional 10K runners. Freaks.

After the 10K. After my dad took this picture he said "Mal, you kinda look like a drug addict." Thanks, Dad! It's more like "Mal, get a spray tan." I could agree with that.

It feels good to write about this because running isn't easy. It's super hard. Super, super hard. Not to mention when you've got stubs for legs like me! I did notice while running with Allison for every step she took with her long lanky legs I took about three. Does that mean I can eat more carbs? I think yes.

I have a Disease...

... and it's called "Runners Anxiety." Did I make this up? Well, yes... but I have it!! I'm telling you people I get more anxiety about running than I do about my final exam in graduate school. Why all the drama, you ask? Me and my two cankle-possessed legs (please refer here if you are unfamiliar with the word cankle) will be running the Dam to Dam half-marathon on June 5th. Yup, 12.something miles. Me... and my cankles have been training for a few months now. According to my training schedule (which I borrowed from a 50-something overweight man who ran it last year) I should run 8 miles this weekend. 8 MILES! I ran 6 miles two weekends in a row, attempted 7 last weekend and FAILED! So... with the help from my med school boyfriend, I was diagnosed with a (made up) term... Runners Anxiety.

I dream about running. Seriously. I do. It's really annoying. And before almost every run I get this stomach ache... the kind of stomach ache you get when you're about to give a toast at a super big wedding, or right before going on a first date with the man of your dreams, or while you are waiting for the results of a pregnancy test... NOT WHEN YOU HAVE TO GO ON A RUN!!! It's just pathetic.

Although I may have Runners Anxiety, I always do follow through with my goal of the week. (aside from last weeks failing attempt to run 7 miles. However, I blame my ipod... long story) I can do this. I can do this. I can do this.

8 miles. I can do this... TOMORROW. :) I'm getting Mexican food tonight instead. Stop judging me. I swear I'll run it tomorrow. Son of a buck.