Wife Mother Runner Blog - Wife Mother Runner

HMF O’Putnam 5K

March 28, 2015

This year after completing the Dopey Challenge in Walt Disney World I signed up for two other challenges, the Hartford Marathon Foundation (HMF) Trinity 5K race series and the Triple Half Challenge. The Trinity 5K Series included three 5K races, one in Putnam, CT, the second in Niantic, CT and the final race taking place in Hartford, CT. Not only was I going to participate in this challenge, but I was doing it because my mother wanted to do her first 5K after having her knee replaced last March. It was her goal while fighting through the brutal recovery time to get better and stronger so she could participate in a 5K. I told her that when she was going through those grueling exercises and fighting the nausea from the pain that she was training for her marathon to get through it.

For Christmas I gave my family Fitbit® bracelets to monitor their steps during the day with the goal of at least 10,000 steps. Surprisingly they loved the gift! They were very conscious of their steps and even during the brutal winter we were having my mom and dad got out and took their walks on the track in North Haven. Then they came flew down to Florida with my husband and kids to watch me complete my Dopey Challenge and we would all comment on how many steps we were getting in at Disney.

As the winter went on, my parents continued to walk, but my mom got pneumonia in February and ended up in the hospital for a few days. She lost about a month of training time; but was determined that she was going to finish the race! Her goal is to get a decent time to get a corral placements that isn’t the last corral for the Walt Disney World 5K next January.

Fast forward to March 15th and we were all in our cars driving up to “butt numb” my daughter called it! We drove 90 minutes from our house to Putnam, CT. I felt like I was up in New Hampshire or Vermont. It was a beautiful area. The place where the race was being held had an amazing waterfall near by. My mom and dad drove up very early. My mom was excited and my dad just likes to be there early.

We got there in time to pick up our race bibs and swag and then use the bathrooms. Then we sat in my dad’s car until 5 minutes before the race start. We hooked up with Kim and her son Ryan, Anne, and her friend Kathleen.

As the race started the runners ran past us and we continued our race walking. The sun started to come out too! We maintained just under a 17 minute pace. At mile 2 there was a climb up hill. My mom had a little bit of a tough time up the hill because of her pneumonia less than a month ago.

But she did it! Around mile 3 there was another hill which we tackled and then rounded a corner to make the turn towards the finish line. My daughter was starting to feel tired. This was a far distance for her. My husband and son were jog/walking up ahead of us. As we got to the last quarter mile my daughter and I picked up the pace so that we could cross the line and take pictures of my mom crossing her first 5K finish line. It was fun running across the line with her for her first finish. Then we waited for my mom and dad and got pictures of them crossing the line.

My mom’s goal for her first 5K was to beat her training pace of 57 minutes and we also checked to see what the last person who crossed the line at last year’s race finished at. Their time was 1:09. My mom met her goal with a finish time of 55:30!

I’m so proud of my family for coming together and helping my mom meet her goal. I am also proud of them for trying something new! My husband who also just had knee surgery last fall did the walk, but was showing some interest in running one of these races with me. We ran the Hartford race together (more on that coming up in the O’Hartford race summary).

It Must Be My Week!

March 25, 2015

I had to wake up at 4 a.m. today because I need to drive up to Massachusetts to teach. When my alarm went off, I was not happy. But then when I stumbled into the bathroom to get ready and checked my email I saw this email! I smiled a little (inside). But it did make my day a little easier to start! I wasn’t sure what time the announcements were going to be sent out. Since I am teaching today I wouldn’t see my emails until breaks. I anticipated getting the news towards the end of the day. This was awesome! My birthday is Monday and I usually feel like the entire month of March is my birthday month so this email, along with the one I received to be a guest at the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration Conference are considered gifts to me.

I have begun keeping a gratitude journal after listening to Kristen Armstrong on the Another Mother Runner pod cast and this is definitely going in the journal! So as I prepare for my long day of travel and teaching, this will make it a little sweeter for me! Now I have to start looking into plans! My pal Jennifer Hall in the Mickey Milers running team recommends the Marriott in Crystal City. I am debating if I want to drive down or take the train. Part of the fun with the races is making the plans on when and how to get there. Now I wait to find out if my other friends got into the lottery as well! Since this is the 40th anniversary I wonder what special things will happen with this marathon. Now I have to work on my training plan also! Looks like some long training runs in August will be on the agenda!

The Another Mother Runner Meet Up and Book Signing

March 24, 2015

Thursday, March 12 was an event on my calendar I was looking forward to. Dimity and Sarah were going to be at Fleet Feet in West Hartford and I was going to meet up with Kimberly Markey and her best friend Nicole, Kimberlee Dziezynski, and Anne Martin for dinner beforehand.

I had a blast! It was great to see the girls outside of a race or on a plane! We ate at Bricco in West Hartford. The food was delicious and it was good to catch up with everyone! Then, we walked to Fleet Feet.

There were a lot of women there and lots of activities to fill some time prior to the book readings. I enjoyed the activity to get the names of two women there and the latest race distance they ran. While doing this I got to meet two great women from CT One of them did the women’s triathlon last September that I was aiming to do last year but chose to sit out. We talked and she told me all about the race and that it is not intimidating. She opened my eyes to consider the idea of doing the tri again this year, but right now it’s not in my heart to do so. But it was great to network with other and to talk about things that scare us.

Our activities to complete while we mingled

Also while we mingled and waited for the readings we had to visit the merchandise table and the sponsor’s table and identify an item that we would like to own. At the Saucony table I saw a few items that caught my eye. The hipster pouch was something I was interested in, as well as the capri pants they had.

After mingling we sat down to listen to the readings from Dimity, Nicole Blades and Alison Overholt. I heard their essays before on previous episodes of Another Mother Runner podcasts; but it was nice to hear them reading their essays in person. In between readings, Sarah and Dimity did raffle prizes for the items on the Sponsor table. Unfortunately I was not a winner. But I had a great time! After the event was over, I had both Sarah and Dimity sign my book and I hung around to chat with them and the other essayists, Nicole and Alison. They are awesome and I hope to see them again at future events.

Alison reading her essay

Sarah (a two-time BQ qualifier) and me

me and Dimity (an Iron Woman)

If you haven’t checked out their books or podcast already, visit their website and listen now! They also gave us a swag bag at the end of the night filled with all of these great products! Thank you to Nuun, RedFox Wireless, SofSole, Gu, Hylands, Runner’s High, Action Wipes, Heart Strides, and Trigger Point for contributing the Sarah and Dimity’s swag bag.

Our swag bag goodies

After the event was over we mingled some more, took pictures and had Sarah and Dimity sign our books and I did some shopping at the Another Mother Runner merchandise table. One of my favorite sweatshrts is my Philly Mother Runner sweatshirt so I HAD to pick up their badass mother runner sweatshirt! They are so soft and comfy. I also picked up an Another Mother Runner soft baseball shirt.

It was such a great night and I know that it was a chance to see them for a book reading that may not happen again for a long time. The next chance I may get to see them is at Wine & Dine in Disney in November. They mentioned that they may attend that race, but if they are at a local race again like Philly then I will be sure to stop by their booth. I keep tabs on where they are from their web site and their pod casts. It was great to see them again and I had a great time hanging with the girls for the night! Thank you Sarah and Dimity!

One Word Resolution For 2015

March 23, 2015

It’s already April and I should have had this posted by now, but I have still been considering what my word is. Then it was confirmed to me yesterday as I wrote my blog post about the races I did with my family.

My one word resolution word of the year is Challenge. I am going to participate in several races which are challenged races. I just completed the dopey challenge in January. That’s probably the biggest challenge of them all that I am participating in. The other challenge I am registered for is the Hartford Marathon Foundation Triple Half Challenge. I have to run the Middletown Half Marathon on April 12, the Mystic Half Marathon on May 31 and the Hartford Half Marathon on October 10. I will earn the HMF Trip Half Challenge jacket and finisher’s medal.

Having a registration booked and on the calendar will enforce me to work on my training. I have been taking it easy since I got back from the Princess Glass Slipper Challenge because I have a strain in my ankle that is slowly recovering. But now that April 12 is just 3 weeks away it’s time to sit down with my calendar and come up with a game plan. The Middletown Half is a hilly race so I have to put some effort into getting a decent time. I haven’t had a great half marathon time since the Cheshire Half in 2013! All of my other half marathons have been the Disney races which I began to run for “fun” and not for time.

The other Challenges in my life come in the form of learning new things. I am working harder at learning as much as I can with my job. I have always enjoyed learning and I have been learning something new just about every day. I crave learning new things and also learn when I teach. I have to teach more classes in the upcoming weeks so I know that I will also pick up new skills while teaching.

I was listening to the “Another Mother Runner” pod cast today and their subject was spot on in regards to what has been on my mind the past few days. They were interviewing Margaret Webb who wrote the book Older Faster Stronger. I have to check out the book. As I was listening to it on my way to work, Margaret said was “Whatever limit you encounter, keep pushing yourself.”

I experienced that last week when I had to give a presentation that someone else wrote. I thought I knew the content but I was feeling unsure of my delivery. I had to suck it up and just dig into it and I did as I always do. I faced the challenge and applied my best to it and the end result was great. I also had to teach a Level 2 class which I have never taught before and that was another morning when I felt like I was walking across a tight wire with no harness or net to catch me! I had to listen to my own advice that I give my kids. When you think you can’t do something, just believe in yourself and you can do it if you try.

What I also took out of that episode was stepping up my running game. I have been focusing on longer races in the past years. Yesterday when I ran the 5K with my husband I liked the feel and the energy of pushing hard during a short race. I want to focus on getting some decent times again in a 5K race. I ran a 35 minute 5K when I used to run a 27 minute 5K. I am injured now, but I still need to get my speed back up in those races. Margaret Webb also said “Women are distance athletes, we run long and slow. We don’t test ourselves running shorter distances.” That’s where I have been in the past 2 years.

I also want to step up my game with my blog. I have been immersed in my new job since last fall and my blogging has fallen to the bottom of the list. I want to keep up with it because I always thought that in my every day life, there was something that circled back to something else that was a thought that was bouncing around in my brain. The perfect example is above where I was facing new challenges and was feeling scared of them…. then three to four days later I listened to a running podcast not even related to what I was thinking about and the topic was exactly what I was feeling!

So to Gomer1 and Gomer2 of the Two Gomers Run For Their Lives pod cast and the Another Mother Runner podcast, this blog post is because of you. Dimity and Sarah, the topic was an ah-ha moment for me! Anthony and Steven, here’s my one word of the year finally!

2015 #DisneySide @Home Party

March 22, 2015

This year I was chosen to host another DisneySide party. We have been experiencing a difficult winter with snow storms happening once every three days. We decided to keep the party on a smaller scale this year. But it was still big on fun! We played trivia and pin the smile on Mickey. My daughter especially loved that game. And there’s no surprise I was getting many of the answers right in the trivia game.

To prepare for the party the kids helped make the Duff tie dye cake, which came out amazing!

We also had healthy snacks and appetizers and guests left with a goodie bag of Twinings Teas, samples of All laundry detergent, HP photo paper, a vacation planning video and luggage tags in an ABC family reusable bag.

Thank you once again for chosing me to participate in the chance to share my DisneySide!

I was give free products to use to host my DisneySide @Home Celebration.

Hartford Marathon Foundation Trinity Series

March 22, 2015

Sharing our entire Pot of Gold medals from the past 3 races

As I write this blog post with a big smile on my face, my kids are outside playing. It’s 7:00 p.m. and it’s still light out. I’m happy that they are still outside playing and not wiped out on the couch from their tremendous accomplishments over the past week. Today was the last 5K race of the Hartford Marathon Foundation Trinity Race Series. This means we all participated in a 5K last Sunday in Putnam, a 5K yesterday in Niantic (IN THE SNOW!) and a 5K today in Hartford! I will post about each race separately but wanted to summarize what took place in the past week. I am so proud of my children and my husband and dad and especially my mom!

We signed up for these races because she wants to do a Disney 5K. She had her knee replace last March and it was a grueling recovery time. I kept telling her that her recovery efforts were her marathon to get better. She wanted to do a 5K with me one day. Well that day finally came last weekend. My kids, husband, mom and dad had never done a 5K race before and they all just completed a three race Challenge!

I hadn’t written about this yet, but my word of the year for my one word resolution is Challenge. I am going to challenge myself this year in all aspects of my life. I recently received a challenge when my co-worker, who is also becoming a good friend, resigned from her job last week. Thankfully she is going to be around for three more weeks; but now I have the challenge of learning as much as I can from her in that short time. She has been a mentor to me since I started working there in October. I thought I knew stuff, but man does she know so so much more!!!! But we will remain friends after she leave and will remain in touch with each other so I am not worried. I am just going to face the challenge like I do with everything else and do my best.

My kids faced their challenges with these races the past two weekends because they both had suffered colds. First my son had one last weekend and my daughter, of course, caught his cold and had it for this weekend’s races. But we all showed up for the races, despite the cold, the drizzle, snow and fierce wind! Each race had its own unique issues; but they were all great (the jury is still out on the O’Niantic race). I laugh because the entire mile 1.5 to the end my daughter whimpered “I can’t do it, I can’t do it.” But then as we crossed the line and she got her medal she had the biggest smile! My husband had meniscus surgery on his knee last September and a stress fracture of that leg so he wasn’t so sure how he would hold up running a race, but he told me he wanted to run the 5K with me. It was fun pulling him along and showing him the Jeff Galloway method. He always commented on how he thought it was different not “running” the entire race. I think if we didn’t use it he’d be in a lot of pain tonight. I may have convinced him that the method works!

What a great way to kick of the Spring racing season! Stay tuned for recaps of the past three races, the O’Putnam 5K, the O’Niantic 5K and the O’Hartford 5K.

Crazy Adrienne and the O’Frosts and O’Potters sharing our bling at the end of the Trinity Series Races in Hartford, CT