Wife Mother Runner Blog - Wife Mother Runner

John Liquori Memorial 5K

June 7, 2015

Today was a spectacular morning. Not only is it my son’s 8th birthday, but it was the Inaugural John Liquori Memorial 5K. Sadly, John Liquori, a 20 year old young man, was struck my a drunk driver while running at 2:00 in the afternoon last July. He died in the hospital. I didn’t know John, but I remember the day the accident happened. I was driving to St. Therese to pick up my kids from camp and a section of Rte 17 was closed off. I knew that wasn’t good. I didn’t see what happened, but learned later that a runner was struck.

John Liquori just hours before his life was taken from him.

John was a great looking guy. Was loved by so many people, and his friends and family put together this event to help raise money for the organizations and interests that John cared so much about. To learn more about this Foundation visit www.doitforjohn.com. I’d say there were about 500 runners and walkers at the event today. The sun was out, the sky was blue and it was a wonderful morning.

My friend Adrienne was running her first 5K. I met up with her and her trainer, her sister-in-law and some friends from her gym. I was excited for Adrienne. Last night I hadn’t even registered for the race yet. When I tried to register online it said the registration was closed so I knew I had to register at the race. We had my son and husband’s family birthday party Saturday night and then we had a fire and stayed up late watching our favorite TV show, America’s Got Talent, so I knew I had to set my alarm for at least 7 a.m. so I could get there in time to register. I didn’t know how large of an event it would be. I actually woke up this morning before the alarm even went off. That was good because I was afraid that I was going to wake up my husband and then he wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep. I am also pleased that I woke up on my own on the weekend because I need to start coordinating my training plan for my upcoming Marine Corp Marathon and the Philadelphia Marathon which will require some early morning weekend long runs to avoid the summer heat.

Before

We haven’t had the chance to run together yet so this was our first time! I ran with her for the first mile without doing my intervals, and then told her that at mile 1 I was going to start doing my intervals. I didn’t set my watch ahead of the race, so it was stuck at the 30/30 setting. It felt great to run the entire mile without stopping. They were keeping a great pace of around 10:30 per mile. I would have continued with them, but I haven’t trained that way and didn’t want to cause injury considering what I have been going through with my back lately. They were never out of my sights and in the end I think I finished only 30 seconds behind them. The course was very flat and it was a great race for her first 5K!

The end of the race ended at the track and I saw Adrienne and her gang just ahead of me and was going to take a picture for her; but decided to just finish the race. She trained well for this race and I am so proud of her! I am looking forward to running more races with her! We are talking about the Branford Road Race in 2 weeks.

After

Way to go Adrienne! I enabled another Mother to Run!

It was great to run for a cause. Sad that this cause was so close to home. His mother and many family members were at the race; but the town supported them and came together today to remember John and to support his family and friends. Life is short, it can change in an instant. In the past year or two I have had the mentality to make the most of every day; especially in the lives of my kids. Yes the accident happened while he was running, but accidents can happen anywhere. He was struck by a drunk driver. He could have been struck by a distracted driver. Yes, I am more aware now when I am out walking and running and make it a point that I am seen by driver and that I can see the driver as well.

Tools To Help My Back

June 6, 2015

I would first of all like to thank Tamara Ingram for bringing this desk to my attention. She had ordered it and posted about it on FaceBook. I was immediately in love with it. Then when it arrived and she posted a picture of it assembled in her home I ordered it right away from Amazon. It is the Techni Mobili Mobile Laptop MDF Cart with Storage.

I have a bad back. I had to begin seeing my chiropractor over five years ago when I picked up my daughter and my back went out on me. It felt like someone walked up behind me and hit me with a taser gun in my back. I was anti-chiropractor for many, many years. But after I saw him and he helped get me back on my feet again I truly believe in the practice. It is because of Dr. Pat that I have been able to continue to run despite having such a bad back.

Recently, because of work and some projects I have been working on at home, I have been sitting too much. Sitting is the new smoking epidemic. There was a recent magazine report in Runners World I believe, that talked about how you can be an avid, active runner and run 7 miles a day; but once you get to work, you sit. But first, you drive to work, then you sit once you are there. Then you drive home, maybe work out, and then site on the couch.

Dr. Pat and I were talking about how the Fitbit is great for letting us know how active we are, but there should be a sitbit to make us aware of how inactive we are and to force us to get up and move around. I have fallen victim to too much sitting this week while working on a few projects. Because of that my back which was already acting up last week, gave me more trouble. I ordered this desk for when my husband finishes up our new room and office; I will have a standing work station. When I work from home I stand at the kitchen counter and work. But sometimes I will move my laptop to the kitchen table and sit and work. That’s my bad and I have to not do that or not do it for as long. However, at the end of the day when the family is watching America’s Got Talent and I want to still work on my blog or other research, I don’t want to shut myself out from the rest of the family. So now I can wheel this cute desk into the living room and still stand while I work!

The desk has wheels, a small footprint, a nice wood grain appearance and the top desk platform can be raised and lowered based on your height requirements. It also has some storage cubbies with shelves.

So thank you Tamara for sharing this and helping my save my back but still be able to work and spend time with my family!

Hands To Hearts Fashion

June 4, 2015

I love finding cute things. Especially unique things. I happened upon a surprise tonight at Cricket’s Hallmark in North Haven. I was in search of a specific gift for my son’s birthday but was quickly distracted when I walked in the store and tbe front of it was like a boutique!

They had some really cute items in there. I saw this one shawl on a hanger and grabbed it because it was the last one. It’s from Hands-To-Hearts. I’m going to wear it tomorrow with a black shirt and jeans. They also had nice dresses and palazzo pants along with many scarves and wraps.

I know I will be heading back to that store soon and I already told my mom about the goodies I found!

Mystic Half Marathon

May 31, 2015

Well I can happily say I completed the Inaugural Mystic Half Marathon today with the help of Diana and Kimberlee. Last night I put my gear together and mixed up a post race chocolate milk. I went to bed around 10:30 but was not able to fall asleep. I had my husband and kids tuck me in and then he put them to bed. I tried reading but my eyelids weren’t dropping as they usually do. Eventually I just put my kindle down and tried to fall asleep. I heard my husband come in and then I tossed and turned for most of the night.

My alarm went off at 4:45 and I got right up. I was pleased that it was light out but that surprised me. I thought maybe it was the moonlight. But I went out to the kitchen and I was the sun rising. It was a pretty morning and the birds were really singing loud outside.

I got ready and was on the road at 5:35. I was beginning to freak out because I estimated that I wouldn’t arrive until 6:45 which wouldn’t give me much time to park and get over to the start and if there was traffic then I’d really be in a pickle. Thankfully I made good time and no one was on the highway. I arrived in about 45 minutes. I parked at the Hilton and met Diana and Kim near the start line with a few minutes to spare and time for a pre race photo and a pep talk. Our plan was to survive. It was extremely humid and hot out. We had to be careful.

I’m glad I finally had the chance to run with Kim. She usually runs with her husband or does her own pace so it was fun to take it easy and run with friends.

The course was pretty running along Mystic Seaport and into the middle of town. Then we ran along the waterfront and into town and through some neighborhoods.

I was starting to get worried around mile 3 because we were in a lot of sun and it was very hot at only 7:30 a.m. We had been hanging around the 2:45 pacers so we decided that it would be good to stick around them. That way we would still finish within the course limit yet not kill ourselves for a faster time.

We stuck with the pace group up until mile 9 where there was a hill and we lost sight of them ahead. We had been maintaining a pace around 12 minute miles, which I thought was good considering the heat and the hills. The course was pretty hilly. It wasn’t like Middletown but it wasn’t as flat as Cheshire either. I had to make sure I took in some sugar because there were some out and backs on the course and many of them were hills and that was playing tricks with my head.

After mile 10 we knew we had a big hill to climb before we had the downhill to where the finish was not far from. So at mile 12 we decided to walk most of the mile since even walking that last mile will bring us to a finish around 2:45. Well we weren’t far off. We crossed the line at 2:48.

Not my best non-Disney race but my purpose was to use it as a training run, especially with my back giving me trouble this week. Thankfully my back felt great when I got up and I had no issues with it at all. I taped my ankle and leg with Rock tape and it did well.

After the race we went to the finishers area and I had some post race chocolate milk and then ran into Bob and Mary and introduced them to Kim and her husband and Diana.

It was great to see them again and we talked for a bit and then hit the roads to head home.
I am happy now that I have 2 of the 3 races for the Triple Half Challenge completed. I have to count to see how many races I have done to date. I’m curious to know how many half marathons I have run since my first one in 2012.

Inaugural Mystic Half Marathon Is Tomorrow

May 30, 2015

The next race in my Triple Half Challenge is the Mystic Half Marathon. Tomorrow is the race and I am afraid my heart isn’t in it the way it should be. I think that is because the race starts at 7:00 a.m. and I have to drive an hour to get to it. Why should that bother me? I run runDisney races that require me to wake up at 3:00 in the morning. Last year I drove to Boston, MA for the Heartbreak Hill Half Marathon, over a 2 hour drive to Boston, so I just have to suck it up and get over that fact.

I am planning on running the race with my friends Diana and Kimberlee. We were at the Middletown Half and the Cheshire Half together the past two months and we decided tomorrow to run this race together. Diana and I don’t have a time goal in mind to get a PR and I had an incident where my back gave me grief this week, so I am being careful. I saw my chiropractor twice this week and I am in good shape with my back’s health. I just have to be sure to see him on Tuesday to make sure nothing gets aggravated. The hard part with this race will be the hour drive home afterwards.

My main concern about this race is that I feel under trained. I ran the Cheshire Half Marathon on April 28th, then went on vacation and had just a few very short runs, and then I got in a 7 mile run last Sunday. So my longest training run for this race has been 7 miles. That’s not how I typically train, so I am hoping the races that I have had already under my belt will be sufficient. But again, our decision tomorrow is to survive and have fun during the race. No time goals and hopefully we will finish before the course is closed!

I will be happy when this race is behind me; but I do have a road ahead of me that I am going to have to start really focusing on. I finally sat down today to review my training schedule for the summer. I have 2 marathons in the fall that I need to begin preparing for – the Marine Corp Marathon and the Philadelphia Marathon. That means I am going to start getting in long runs during the heat of the summer. I am also going to begin training for next year’s Dopey Challenge. I emailed Jeff Galloway today to get his assistance in putting together my training schedule based around my race schedule.

I just found something on Twitter than helped inspire me as I go pick out what to wear for tomorrow’s race. @GeoffSmith1984 said “Go out and enjoy it, if you enjoy something you’ll be good at it, says @GeoffSmith1984 #MysticHalf” He’s right. I do enjoy running. I enjoy the time with my friends and I haven’t had the chance to run with Kimberlee yet. We always see each other but never run together so that will be fun as she, Diana and I continue on our quest to earn our jackets for the Triple Half Challenge!

The Dreaded Last Day Of School

May 29, 2015

I had been feeling something recently but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I had an inkling that maybe it was because my son’s 8th birthday was coming up soon. Then I read an article that his second grade teacher posted on Facebook tonight and it all made sense.

The article really hit me in the gut. It made perfect sense. When I was at orientation for the school he will be going to next year I had a freakish moment as I was standing in the gym. I was listening to the Principal presenting slides to is about all of the great things the kids will do at that school but at the same time I was having flashbacks of when I attended that school and stood in that very gym for my first school dance. I played gym, gymnastics, band concerts and talent shows in that gymnasium. I had my first crush with Ricky Fiengo at that school. How could my son be going to a new school already!

There is a difference though that eases my mind only a little. When I went to that school it was for grades 5-8. Thankfully, the school is only for grades 3-5. But I’m still bothered by the change in schools. I was told that you can’t go have lunch with your kids at the new school. It is a time where the kids need to be separated from their parents a little more.

Well now that the year is coming to a close for my son at Jerome Harrison I am making sure to participate as much as I can in his events. I will also go there to have lunch at least one more time before he leaves. I was able to visit him briefly at the library where he was having a field trip this week and his face lit up when I walked in the room. He clung to me and couldn’t love on me enough and that was such a special feeling.

Tonight after we got home from our traditional family night out he and I took a walk up our street in the moonlight and talked about his day at school while we held hands. I don’t want to let go of that hand. I’m not ready for him to be 8 yet. The time that he was born is going by very quickly and he is changing and growing a lot lately.

It’s hard to see them growing up but it is also a good thing to see them grow and prosper and learn. I am glad Adrienne will still be my little one. But it feels like yesterday I was weeping when she got on the bus for kindergarten. She has had a huge year of growth and maturity. She reads to us every night and sometimes when she gets on the bus she is too busy socializing to wave back to me. Even though that makes me a little sad I am so proud of her.

I want to relish and enjoy the last day of school for my kids but it is going to be hard saying goodbye to the first big kid school my son went to. Just like it was hard when he was graduating from St. Therese nursery school. I remember now that I had the same feelings 3 years ago before his graduation. Those 3 years went by in a blink. It feels like just yesterday we had that graduation. I have to cherish and savor every moment. Time is passing by far too quickly!