Happy belated Mother's Day...

to all you mom's out there and Happy Monday!

Less than 3 weeks until race day! Actually 20 More days to go, but whose counting!!!!!!!

I completed 40 miles last week, Yikes! Never did I think that I could possibly accomplish that in one week, EVER! But guess what... I will be doing 40 miles on race week and I know I can do it NOW!

Saturday's 20-mile run was on a new course most of the time... the course name is double loop! I have to say that the first loop was very pretty and had nice scenery... the second loop was completely opposite! I do have to thank two wonderful people for helping me/the team out this Saturday! I asked if they would volunteer to help with the water stops and they got a lot of compliments from everyone who stopped by their Mile 11 Water Stop! THANK YOU Gwynne and Mom for doing that for all of us! They were absolutely GREAT!

Have you ever heard of runners say they hit a wall? Well this Saturday I felt the wall hitting! Hitting a wall is when you think you can't go any further but then when you pass that feeling and keep continuing you find that you DID IT! That was me from mile 18-19! When we passed an area that said Mile 17 I thought I could do this... but then we never saw Mile 18 or 19 marked and knew that the light at the end of the tunnel was once we saw the 5-Freeway! Since it wasn't marked we had no idea how much further... it felt like FOREVER and when we FINALLY saw the freeway... we all screamed of excitement and new that we COULD finish this run! It almost put me and the other 5 people I was running with into tears! That is hitting the wall!

One of the ladies who was running with us "Stephanie" said it was a great accomplishment to be running with us because we were fast! I don't really consider myself fast... so I thought that was cool and a great compliment! She did GREAT too! We ran for 3:50 minutes that day and completed OUR first 20 mile run... that equals 11:30/pace per mile... I don't think that was fast but I wasn't about speed on Sat... it was only about finishing! We did walk some and stopped at all 3 water stops... I played Yahtzee as it was the game offered to break up our miles! We also ate a bunch of snacks that was available on the course! It was a lot of fun and I am so proud of myself for accomplishing with great people around me! Jason (my honored teammate) and his brother David cheered us on at the Mile 16 water stop!

Their is so much that had happened I think I could put on 5 or 6 blogs for ALL of my experiences! It was just amazing and I am in awe of how I feel after completing that challenge!

To sum what could be a VERY long post... we were tricked on the course! At mile 15 the chalk mark said... 4 miles to go! We kept running and wondering where our Mile 16 water stop was or if they forgot to put it out!?! Well when Megan and Carolena looked at the map... it said we were at mile 15 and not 16 as that would be 4 miles to go! We were all just trying to push to mile 16 for a break... that felt like a long mile!

At mile 12 Jeremy called me to inform me that some worker was parked in my parking spot and let me know that I could park in his spot, if needed! I think it was his way of venting at a frustrating thing for him... NOT something I really was concerned about at that point because my main concern was finishing 8 more miles with my friend Kim at my side. Also at that point Kim had hit her challenge with a pulled muscle in her right calf. She and I walked and tried to run through it but she was SO frustrated and I stuck with her... trying to help her out with stop and stretching as much as she needed! I have to admit... the walking was a nice change of pace for me as I wanted to make sure that I could finish 20 miles and still go to Disneyland that evening... which I DID! She was in no real hurry to finish either as she had big plans for Graduating that day too... and wanted to be able to WALK that evening to get her Teaching Degree! I am proud of her, we ROCKED!

We also had mentors Lisa and Ranga with us for the beginning of our run through about mile 9 or 10! They told our little group of 6 how fast we were and how funny it was for Mentors... who are supposed to be supporters for the participants... were having a hard time keeping up with us! They are trying to recruit me to be a mentor! I think it is definitely in the works but probably not next season! I am thinking Winter 2008 or Spring 2009 for my mentorship!

Disneyland was fun but I was really tired towards the end! I ended up dancing quite a bit which surprised me as much as Jeremy!

Sunday morning, I woke up and thought how nice it would be for me to clean the house for Jeremy and get laundry done early so it wouldn't be a MUST on Monday! So I got up about 9am after tossing and turning since 8am and did the two tasks! Jeremy was very appreciative of my helping in the cleaning department, since it has been MONTHS since I have helped! He ended up working on Saturday (our clean house day) and was delighted to wake up with a clean house and clean clothes! We then went shopping for MOM's Day presents and to a hobby store for US! Then we headed to his parents house and hung out until I had my bowling league! I bowled OK... my average is 115 and last night my avg was 120 for the 3 games! We ended up winning 5 out of 7 points and that made me really happy! As of yesterday's standings we are 1st place in our division!!!! Just 3 weeks ago we were in last place... YIPPEE!!!!!

That about sums up my weekend!

I am running 4 miles today along Mile Square Park and going to my tap class this afternoon! I hope to watch a movie and relax after my tap class! I will let you know if that happens tomorrow, here's to hoping!

Sorry for the lack of updates, I have been so busy lately! I hope to update more often and not leave y'all hanging like that again!

Love ya,
Mel