Fun Runs under a Toronto Sun!

A lot of things have happened in the past month or so that I haven't had time to write about...the Alberta Floods devastated, and then united my city, I went to Jamaica, Stampede 101 went off with barely a hiccup, I went to Dallas for the first time, and I've been training like crazy for the Seawheeze next weekend. But before all that, I went to visit friends in Toronto and ran not once, not twice, but three times!

I left Calgary on June 21 in the pouring rain (it turns out I left just before the flooding got crazy) and overnighted at the YYZ Sheraton Gateway so I wouldn't have to take the red eye flight on Friday morning.  I had to get up bright and early because my training schedule called for a 15K run. May I say the Sheraton is GREAT because when I checked in I asked at the front desk if there were any running paths nearby and they gave me a fancy official Sheraton map with a 3K and a 5K loop right out the front door of the hotel and around the airport!

 

Gah! Why won't this rotate? Anyways, is neat, no?

Easy peasy, I crank out 3 loops of the 5K without getting lost at all. Not an official race, but I did have to get that done while I was there. I got texts throughout from YYC with updates on the flooding...it was crazy!  The sun in Toronto was already blisteringly hot at 7am plus the geese in Toronto are kind of jerks because when I stopped to take a picture of some cute goslings, I got chased by angry hissing parents! harumph.
 

Jerk geese

Sweatin' like a hog on slaughter day.

Run completed, I went back to bed for an hour, showered and took the train downtown to meet my friend at the Color Me Rad expo to pick up our bibs. Pretty exciting stuff as we picked up our shirts and awesome sunglasses and debated over buying cool Color me Rad swag like socks or 70's gym shorts. We grabbed some Red Bull samples and then headed to PF Changs for my very first visit and to carb up before our run (mint margaritas have carbs too, yes?). We then stopped in Unionville on the way home to pick up our second set of bibs, shirts and swag. This one was the Run for Women in Unionville, which we had heard was awesome and had something different than a medal at the finish line...plus had a kid race too so Kendall could run too!

RACE DAY #1

We had to get up at an ungodly hour (I had about 30 texts from YYC about flood, a bunch of my friends got evacuated) and all headed out to the race. The grownup race was first, so after snarfing some free snacks, listening to some motivating speeches from Olympians, and doing our group warmup, we were off!

Bibs on, now where's the lobster??

Unionville is an awesome wee Ontario "gem of a historic village" so the start of the race was right up Main Street which felt like we were running in the 50s with its brick fire station and City Hall and gazebos, sooo cute!  After that we veered off into a gorgeous park and looped around a shaded gravel path (it was close to raining but it was still HOT out so the shade was nice). It was actually a pretty great route, I would like to run it again sometime!  After the loop, we headed back and came back up along Main Street for a great finish with cheering fans waving cowbells and holding all kinds of fun signs! Then instead of a medal, we got these awesome bracelets from Foxy , just another reason why I love women's only runs...see how cute? 

Of course I love me some medals, but it sure is nice when you get something you can actually wear (and subtly let people know how awesome you are). 

After a few glasses of water and some more snacks, we went back to do the Kids run with Kendall...man, kids can MOVE, she went off like a shot and I could barely keep up with her! Good thing was only one kilometer, I could NOT have kept up that pace much longer. Super fun run though, watching all the little girls tear around the course.

I am at full tilt, and the kid is just cruising!

Success and triumph for everyone called for nonstop eating and drinking for the rest of the day (I had just discovered Glazed Donut Vodka existed and it needed to be tried in all its delicious forms) after we assembled our shirts for Color Me Rad...Team Betty White needed to have a shoutout to our favorite feisty senior celebrity!

RACE DAY #2!

Now, originally we had picked the Woman's run as a substitute for the Color me Rad run which wasn't being held in Toronto. Imagine our excitement when they announced TWO Toronto runs were being held, and THE SAME WEEKEND I WAS GOING TO BE THERE ANYWAYS! This is a lot of running in one weekend, but the Color me Rad is pretty low pressure (no timing chip) so we figured we could walk most of this one. So, we picked up Tracy and her daughter Paisley (at another ungodly hour) and headed out to the park where music was blaring and the energy was crazy!  We were in one of the first waves but there were already color bombed folks walking around showing off their new colors. After trying some Vitamin water samples and tatting up RAD-style, we headed into the corral and with a few color bombs to herald our start, we were OFF!!!

Team Betty White is ready to be RAD!

I was so excited to get color bombed I broke into a trot...which was not mirrored by the rest of my team (Tracy may have lit a cigarette at this point). I am ashamed to say when they told me to go ahead, I broke the rule of "no soldier gets left behind" and scampered off as fast as one could when it was already high 20Cs and about a trillion percent humidity and ended up doing 4.95K on my own.   I pirouetted through every color bomb station and when I finished I ran back to the parking lot to pick up camera (to amused cries from incoming new racers than I was going the wrong way or that I had already crossed the finish line)  I got back in time to take a few pics of them coming in and even joined them for another triumphant finish!

Hey, thanks Flo-Foto for not blocking your images?



Ain't nobody more RAD than us!

I've done races at Disneyland and World, in Vegas, in the snow, and one in Vancouver that had mermaids and drag queens cheering us on, but I think Color Me Rad is one of my favorites. It was low key and relaxed and totally fun and people were really getting into it. The white outfit before and afters looked so fun, and the energy before and after the race were pretty hard to beat!  I've read that this race is super popular because it isn't elitist and it brings out the kid in everyone and that was how I felt when we were there. I felt like it brought in a lot of people who wouldn't normally enter a 5K run of any kind, and I think it will help encourage people to have fun with running...because as much as I complain about how I hate running, I really don't...there isn't much that beats the excitement of race day :)

I feel bad that I didn't get to write about this sooner, I'm sure I've forgotten some things, but there was a lot on the go in the weeks following this trip. But I got to spend time with my dear friend and her family that I just don't get to see enough of, got to try 2 new (and very different) races, make some new friends and ate and drank from sunup to sundown. All in all, a great weekend, I hope I get invited back soon!

What the....Fun Run!?

So, our Seawheeze training schedule on Wednesday alternates between sprint drills and hill drills and today was hills (which I prefer to sprints…I can probably chug slowly up a hill forever if I had to, but I can’t sprint worth a damn).

The last 2 months of hill training have been “jog up hill for 90 seconds, then jog slowly back down and run easy recovery and then repeat until 50 minutes is up”, with the easy recovery time getting shorter and shorter as the weeks went by (ie, the first week you only did the hill 3 times and then had lovely 10 minute recoveries, and the last one was run up the hill 8 times so your recoveries were only 3 minutes). You know, the gradual buildup to hills that are a staple in half marathon training.

This morning was different though.
 
The drill call for the same 8 hills, but instead of easy recovery jog back down and then around the block, you then SPRINTED BACK DOWN THE HILL and then repeated…so the “recovery” was actually at a high speed.

 

So what ended up happening was a jog up the hill and then a sprint back down gleefully waving my arms and shouting WHEEEEEEEEE with a vague feeling of terror that I would trip at such breakneck speed. Which was EXHAUSTING because we never really got a proper recovery, but was probably my favorite drill work EVER, because the running down the hill was SO fun…it was like when running down hills as a little kid was the funnest thing ever and running was for the fun of it before I grow up and it became all hard and horrible because I am out of shape and my joints are getting old. And while it was exhausting because there was no recovery time (and to tell the truth, at the end the jogs back up were slower and slower and had more walking than usual), the sprints down the hill were exhilarating and meant that instead of 50 minutes of varying levels of horrible, I got 8 minutes of pure unadulterated joy in the mix. I actually couldn’t stop the WHEEEEEEEEEEE from escaping, and I’m sure anyone driving towards me would have wondered how someone could run with such a smile on their face.

Anyway, now my legs hurt in all kinds of crazy new places and I am struggling to stay awake. So I will assume that means it was effective training and Friday's long run will be a breeze!

PS… I promised I would post about the 2 Toronto runs I did last month and I haven’t forgotten…I even have fun pictures! They will be up by this weekend!!

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!!

OK, I was out of town last week so I didn't get this live, but I can imagine the shrieking of my teammates was pretty epic???

Acceptance never felt so sweet!!!

Not sure if I can stress how exciting this is, this race is extremely popular, so popular they have to do a random draw from the 30K+ applicants they get for the 7000 or so spots available.  I have tried 4 times already, so I was starting to lose hope that I would EVER get in. And I had tried as a single and as a group, so I wasn't sure what I was doing wrong.

Anyway, we are IN and there are 5 of us on team Pardon my Fartlek (AHAHAHAA, I love run jokes) so we will have 5 lovely ladies running the hills of San Fran in October!

Bring on the Tiffany necklace, Mr Fireman!!!

NWT = A OK!

Week 3 is now underway, and I’m very proud to report that we are all still on track with the training program!  We have done sprints, hills, maintenance runs and everything, but the one struggle I am finding is trying to schedule my long runs. The schedule says to do them on Saturday, but I find I almost never have the time to do them Saturdays and end up switching them for Sunday instead. This makes Sunday a great day of Run. Laundry. Nap. Eat Everything. I’m still DOING them, don’t you worry, but I find that with summer around the corner my weekends are filling up and I am having to plan well ahead of time to get in the vital loooooooong runs to build up the stamina for race day.

 

For example, last weekend I was in Yellowknife because it was the week before the equinox.  The last 2 times I was in the Territories were in the winter and the sun came up for an hour a day and it was colder than all heck so I wanted to see what it was like at the other end of the spectrum so off we went.

For the record, it is MUCH nicer there in June than in February. And it is darn right UNSETTLING to have the sun still shining at midnight. But we drank $14 bottles of beer, ate some (unexpectedly) delicious food and I got in both the scheduled weekend runs. And I’m happy to report that while I was a poky little puppy for both the short run and the long, the scenery was great, the temperature was just about perfect, I didn’t get too many bug bites and I didn’t get lost.

 

See how pretty?!  The view, not the sweaty rumpled princess. FYI, 2 minutes
 after this I took a "nature break" in those trees....and got caught by a local out walking their dog.

The only downside was that I was expecting it to be easy breathing since I was 3000 feet closer to sea level than usual, but I ended up gasping along and walking more than I wanted to. Am pretty lazy when I'm by myself. Plus I was one Sweaty Betty, I didn’t realize how humid it was there! I also forgot to bring some carb chews, so I had to eat a granola bar at the halfway mark…tasty but not the best feeling to be choking down sawdust halfway through a 14K run. Will have to remember to pack some for the next few weekends when I am away.

The NWT Legislature! Sadly closed on Sundays or I could have used
 their bathrooms. I mean, taken a tour and learned about the government process.

 

Tomorrow is our first Official Trio Seawheeze Training Run, and it will be 50 minutes of Fartlek training. Which pretty much guarantees I will be struggling for breath for 49 minutes as I laugh childishly.

The Hills are Aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiive......

...with the sound of gasping for breath....yep, today was our first hill training in the Tacklebox, and while I was dreading it for the last few days, hills this morning was actually not bad at all! I met Linz at 525 this morning and after a 5 minute warmup, we ran up the hill at 10th Street for 5 X 90 second intervals with recovery jogs between them. Sure, it sucked to be up that early, but it means we are still sticking to the program and getting it done! Plus then I spent most of the day shadow boxing Rocky-style, totally proud of how awesome I felt!

Couldn't have been a better day for feeling awesome about hills either...the random draw for the Nike Woman's Half Marathon in San Fran opened this week! I entered the draw for the fifth time in a row, fingers crossed that this time I get in! Yes, San Fran would be a scary hilly course, but this is the one where finishers get a specially designed Tiffany necklace instead of a medal. FROM A FIREMAN! If that doesn't motivate a girl to want to run up 21K of hills, I don't know what will!



Brave AND bearing gifts in blue boxes, it doesn't get much better!

 This weekend is a 13K run and some more yoga....then next week we find out if that we got into San Fran, which will certainly motivate us on the hills!

Week One

We are four days in and feeling great! After a solid week of rain in YYC, we've had gorgeous blue skies and warmer weather, which means it's been pretty easy to get up early and knock out the day's running schedule. Even if the schedule is for a 50 minute run with 6 intervals of one minute sprints. That made for 360 seconds of me muttering words my father doesn't know I know followed by a day of SUPER sore legs.  But we are all feeling great for sticking with it and I'm sure I'll have a good sleep tonight! Plus tomorrow is the best day of the week...REST DAY! That's right...no run, no cardio, no crosstrain, just give my tired legs a day to rest and repair and get ready for this weekend's long run...but frankly 11K actually sounds better than those repeats from this morning.

Also...you know those days when you drag your sad tired fat carcass out of bed early the week after vacation and blearily dress and head out for a run, cursing the day you ever registered for a race involving the hateful activity that gobbles up so much of your TV watching time? Well, sometimes you get a reward so awesome that even 2 days afterward it makes the smile stay on your face?  Well, this is what temporarily halted our run on Tuesday morning....

How goose-stepping got its name!

Pretty much the cutest interruption ever, the morning skies rang with our shrieks of delight! So even though it was a rough start, it reminded me just how much I like getting up and running first thing in the morning.

Get Ready, Get Sweaty!

Some of the worst things about getting back from a week long vacation include:

-the insane credit card bill that even when I go over it closely proves was all me.
-buying/drinking whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. More eyeliner and beer for breakfast? Sure thing!
-trying to reduce calories down from the high school linebacker-style consumption I managed last week. Seriously, one day I hit daily calorific intake before I finished breakfast.
-getting back into a running schedule after a week off...feels like starting over.

But you know what helps offset the post-vacation blues? Coming home to this!!!

Sooooo much better than a bill!

HURRAY! My snappy Lululemon shorts had arrived while I was away!  And how cool is the shipping paper??

When I eagerly tore that off, there was ANOTHER cool pattern underneath on a zippered thing resembling a giant pencil crayon case.

Not sure what to use it for yet, but trust me, it'll be something cool.

OMG so much better than white.

When I opened that, the shorts were revealed in all their stripy glory. Hurray! They look just as good in real life as they did online.  Plus, they fit great!!!

No point of reference, but trust me here, they are TINY.

Wait...let me clarify. They are not too tight or too baggy, and they are comfy as heck. But, let me be clear, they have a TWO INCH INSEAM. You know what that means? Like, what it means with regard to PANTS? Well, the tag for the pants hangs 3 inches below the hem of the shorts. They are so short they require built in underpants. They are so short the underwear I was wearing when I tried them on was actually clearly visible above and below the shorts. I'm no seamstress, but I bet less than half a meter of fabric was used in their construction. And I can assure you they will NEVER see the light of day outside in Calgary. But I AM pretty excited to wear them on runs in other countries...I will be in Jamaica next month, so they won't have to wait too long to see the light of day.

Just in time too...Happy June 3......the Seawheeze Training Program kicks off today! And while I don't have a snappy iphone that I can download their awesome app onto, I am still able to follow along oldskool on the web!  

Day 1 started out with Vancouver-style rain at 5am which seemed fitting since the race will be there too. Undeterred, Princess Chris and I met at 530am and did the 50 minute run on the schedule and cheered as we checked it off on the app. Kind of rough after a few weeks off, plus the rain didn't make it easy to get up and out of the house, but it still beats the treadmill!

Yoga tomorrow...hurray!

Caution- Extreme Grossness Below!

So, did you guess?

Well, here it is in pictures. After the Princess Half Marathon, my left big toe started hurting. Nothing crazy, and I could still run, but I was aware that it was there and not feeling great. A few weeks after that when I was changing polish, I noticed my toe now looked like this:



Thaaaaaat's....not a good thing?

Feeling the first inklings of concern, I did the only thing sensible and painted my toes with OPI's lovely shade of Black Cherry Chutney. Yep, just like turning up the radio to block out the funny noise my car makes, I opted to cover up the problem and pretend it didn't exist. Plus, my toes looked great and were right in line with the end-of-winter colors.




Problem SOLVED! And it looks way awesome too.

I kept this up for a few weeks, working through all my darkest shades, and feeling all happy about my pretty toes as the discomfort in my toe slowly increased. Still not to the point of horrible pain, but I was now having trouble running long distances without it really REALLY hurting.

A few weeks ago, I went deep water running. During some of the flutter kicks, my toe started feeling WEIRD. As in, it hurt a LOT and was starting to feel...well....FLAPPY, is the best I can think of to describe it. Relaxing in the hot tub after DWR, I examined it a bit further, relieved to see foot was still intact (and horrified at thought of nail coming off in public pool?), but something definitely wasn't right.

When I got home, I armed self with some antiseptic and bright lights, and braced myself for the worst. Gave it a little wiggle to see how it looked.



Sure doesn't look like the other toe.

Wouldn't you know it, the whole thing just swung away from the toe bed. Trying not to vomit, I tugged a bit, terrified it was going to hurt, but the whole thing wouldn't quite come off. No pain though. I was able to cut the whole nail off.



No No No No No NO NO NOOOOO!!!!!



It looks like a giant beetle. It was
prettier on my foot than in my hand :(



It actually looks even worse now too.

I spent the next few minutes staring at the nail and fighting off waves of horror. And nausea. And rage that this had happened just as open toe shoe season was starting. And just the teeniest sense of pride...only Very Real And Serious Runners lose toenails. But mostly horror. But hey, toe felt fantastic after that, no pain at all!

You can't fake the horror in my eyes.

I've had a few weeks to try to get used to it as the new nail slowly grows in (seriously, this means closed toed shoes ALL SUMMER) , but I am still totally grossed out by self. And I just can't muster up the courage to book my first pedicure of the summer....maybe I can get a 10% discount??

Tomorrow is my long run day and I'm going to run around the reservoir. That means a fresh self pedi afterwards, which feels great after a long run. Am sticking to pale pinks only these days so as not to draw attention to feet!

Happy Easter, Happy Birthday to me, oh and...

Well, it's been longer than I had intended, but honestly, not much to report. Am just trucking along, doing my weekly runs and increasing distance on the weekend. Nothing rigid, nothing fancy as far as training, I am just trying to keep up with my yoga and my maintenance runs so when the actual training takes off, I can literally hit the ground running.

Well...except for one thing that happened that was so horrible I am still having trouble coming to terms with it. I'll post some disgusting pictures soon, but in the meantime try to guess based on these clues...

1. It was like something out of a horror film

2. It officially makes me a Real Serious Runner

3. It eliminates most of my summer shoes from wardrobe contention this summer

4. I hope I get to enjoy a discount the next time I get a pedicure

Any guesses?

Badass Mudders!

It's that time of year again...the clocks have spring forward, the days are getting longer, bunnies are trying to jump over each other but not quite making it and the urge to run outside gets overwhelming.  Today's forecast called for 12C, sunny and windy like the bejesus so I was just itching to get outside. Princess Chris and I made plans to run at lunchtime and I asked Lindsay, who I had coaxed into registering for the Seawheeze to join us.

The weather did not disappoint. While windier than I like (and it changed directions on the way back so it felt it like whole run was into the wind) the sun was shining and it was WARM out...not just a Chinook, it definitely felt like spring, and man, it felt great. I was wearing my new Mickey running shoes for the first time, and kept squealing when i looked down at my feet. But I quickly remembered the one thing I don't love quite so much about spring running...

MUD.

Ohh maaaaah laaaawd, the mud.  

Within 5 minutes of leaving the building, my gorgeous new Mickey shoes were covered in so much mud I bet they were 5lbs heavier. And even running through patches of (rapidly melting) snow couldn't rinse 'em off. A quick rinse when we got back to the office did little to restore their glory and to be honest, a quick whiff made me worry it wasn't all mud. I opted to wrap then in paper towels and stick them in my bag to let them dry out and hopefully clean them off later....

This was after the FIRST cleaning attempt. sorry Mickey!

Well, might as well break them in sooner or later, and a 5K didn't give me any trouble, hurray! It was windier than we would have liked, but overall a gorgeous day, great company and a pretty darn good run. We even spent the rest of the afternoon on a bit of a runner's high!
Plus, it was our first trio run. Next thing you know, we'll be running the Seawheeze in August!

Shoes + Disney = AWESOME

Now, I know I've written of my love of shoes before, but I think this bears repeating. I LOVE SHOES. It's usually the first part of someone's outfit I notice. I have shoes in my garage, storage room, front hall closet, spare room closet, linen closet, bedroom closet and in my filing cabinet at work. Obviously, if I could stand it I would always wear 3 inch heels (hey, is only way I don't have stumpy elephant legs, plus it lowers my BMI into the normal range, hahaha!) but I can't last all day even in the comfiest of heels. Oh, plus I run kind of a lot, and with a "heavy footfall", which I think is the running store saleperson's nice way of saying "like a fat kid", but I'll stick with the scientific term, heh. So when I find a good pair of running shoes, it's time to shout it from the rooftops...errr....Internet.

This year, Disney teamed up with New Balance to create a pair of Mickey and Minnie inspired running shoes for their RunDisney program. The men's shoe is based on Mickey in his classic tuxedo and the ladies Minnie shoe draws from Minnie's polka dot dress and yellow heels look of yesteryear. As soon as I discovered they existed, I was smitten! Behold how cute they are!!!

Mickey on the left, Minnie on the right...LOVE THEM!

So it was very scary to further read these babies were limited edition and only available at Run Disney expos. How handy that I was heading to one of those in a few weeks! And even handier that I have giant man feet and might be able to scoop up a pair of men's shoes at a women's run! Never had I been so excited to have big feet...with any luck, there wouldn't be many ogres registered in the run who might also be interested in the size 11 women's shoe because we weren't going to be able to be at the expo when it opened.

Long story short, we waited in line for probably 20 minutes to get a pair to try on as people around us lamented the sizes they were already sold out of. Like the clever princesses we are, we researched the model # of this shoe and tried them on here at home ahead of time so we knew just what size to ask for. I had decided I liked the Mickey ones better for running, but quickly got caught up in the hype at the expo and asked for both gender shoes. We waited with baited breath as they searched....and returned with boxes of shoes!!!! I was able to snag both a Mickey and a Minnie thanks to my big ol' feet, but Christi being the daintier princess was sadly only able to get a pair of Minnie shoes. Nonetheless, we fought off the women desperate to grab our shoes if we didn't want them (seriously, this shoe buying experience was cutthroat! I could NOT let those Minnies go) and gleefully bought our shoes before heading over to....pick up our race packs. That's right, we went for shoes before checking in for the race, we were already hours late! 

Now, the first rule of running a half marathon is don't talk about Fight Club  don't wear new ANYTHING on race day. Not headband, shoes, pants, socks, anything you haven't tested for chafing first. But Christi decided her shoes matched her Snow White dress perfectly and decided to throw caution to the wind and wore her brand new shoes on the race....

In 21K and over 22000 runners, we didn't see a single other person wearing these shoes.

But GUESS WHAT?!

She loved 'em! No problems at all and she looked every bit the princess at the finish line in her gorgeous new shoes!  A few blisters, but she always gets them after a half and these were way less problems than she's had in the past with tried and tested shoes. Don't try this at home folks, it was a Disney Miracle!

The second miracle is that I've now worn my Minnie shoes for a 6K and a 5K this week...both on the treadmill thanks to the dump of snow we got on the weekend, but I also love them! I figured I would use them for crosstraining instead of running, but they matched my outfit better those days. They are comfortable, well fitted and have just the right amount of support I need, which I wasn't sure of the first time I tried them on. Plus anytime I started getting annoyed with the treadmill, I just looked down at my feet and felt all happy again! Thanks Minnie!

One Week Later

OK, so I still feel like I haven't recovered from the Princess on Sunday. I still feel tired and achy...like I fell out of a tree or something. Plus, darn it, I deserve a bit of a break. So I haven't run once since then, or even been to the gym in the past week. That's fine, I think a few days to fully recover is a good idea. So in the meantime, please enjoy our before and after pictures from the race:

Why are we smiling? We're about to run 21K in 25C!

Note we both have a touch of the crazies in

our eyes...we're dazzled by the new bling!



Also, a friend sent me this, but I'm thinking it's a pretty good idea....might give this a whirl the next time I'm downtown...DANCE WALK BABY!!

Princess 2.0

Well, it's been over 6 months since my last post. I have no excuse other than sheer laziness....On writing, that is. I have been running. Last year we did the Stampede Half and the Seawheeze. I did them and didn't write about it. I feel like I let myself down there...so let's acknowledge that it happened and move on.

Happy 2013! 

This is gonna be the YEAR I RUN AND WRITE ABOUT IT. 

I like having the record of it to track my progress and setbacks. I'm kinda funny sometimes. And a few pictures too. I'm kinda funny looking ALL the time, heh!

So what has 2013 brought so far? Well, get this. On Sunday, Princess Chris and myself completed the Disney Princess Half Marathon. That's right...the race that got us started on this whole running thing. Nope, we didn't write about the training. Yep, I will post a few pics this week. And I promise to start writing again, even if it's just for me. And I should have something to write about...we are registered for the Seawheeze again in August and the Disneyland Half again in September. We even have a new recruit for the Seawheeze running her first even half marathon! We are also planning on running the Stampede half again this year. And I promise there will be posts and pictures all year long!