Make your own fire works

Happy 4th of July! Last night Keith and I spent the beautiful night sitting outside listening and watching the nightborhood kids shoot off their arsenal of bottle rockets and fireworks. It was so relaxing. I hope you will find your own unique way to celebrate Independence Day tonight:

• Sit on your patio with a citronella candle, watching the fog of firework smoke creep across your lawn. No tv, no radio, no cell phone. Grab a glass of wine! Relax!
• Hangout with friends and have a cookout. Be safe. The police will be out in full force tonight and an owi would ruin the evening.
• Go to a local celebration and enjoy the food booths, raffle tickets and socializing that are so much a part of this day.
• Thank a veteran. Fly your flag. Do something nice for someone else.

I would love to go for a run on the 4th, which is my typical routine for this weekend, but no such luck. My legs are still bothering me, so I am on hold until early next week. I finally broke down and bought another pair of Nike Zoom Vomero 3's and am waiting on them to arrive. They were practically impossible to find because the new version is out, but I wanted the 3's because I knew my feet loved them. My pretty purple Brooks are being demoted to weight lifting shoes for the time being. Ugh.

Happy 4th and happy birthday to my sister tomorrow!!

Running for Nothing

I opened the mail Sunday night and found a letter addressed to "Friends" at our address. Normally, I don't even open these kinds of things because they are almost always advertisements for heating & cooling or roofing services. But this one looked different because it was hand written with no return address.

What I saw inside immediately spoke to me, not only as a runner, but as a woman of faith. I have never seen a religious letter that I was able to relate to like this one. I wish I knew who sent it, or maybe thats the point that I do not know who is praying for me. There was no church or group affiliated with the letter, but it spoke to me very deeply, and not because I ran the same race. Below is the letter, verbatim. I hope it touches you like it did me.

Running for Nothing

As a runner started the 2006 Chicago Marathon, he notices something on the ground. It was a runner's chip - the device each runner puts on his or her shoe to record progress at various timing stations during the race. Apparently, one poor runner would be traversing the next 26.2 miles on foot with nothing to show for it.

Officially, that runner did not run the race. There would be no record of his participation. Even if he had finished the race in record time, it wouldn't have mattered. The folks who organize the race set the rules, and no matter how well someone runs, if the officials say the runner doesn't qualify, thats the way it is.

In one sense, thats also the way it is with all of us. We can run what appears to be a good race by doing good deeds for others and obeying lots of rules. But when we arrive at the final checkpoint - heaven - and haven't made sure our name is recorded in the Lamb's Book of Life by putting our faith in Jesus as our Savior, we're disqualified to enter.

Jesus saith unto him, I am the truth, the way and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me (John 14:6).

Are you trusting Jesus? If not, you're running for nothing.

It's not what I achieve that qualifies,

It matters not if I gain wealth or fame;

The only thing I must be certain of --

"Have I put my trust in Jesus' name?"

If we could earn our salvation--

Christ would not have died to provide it.

There is hope in this hopeless world.

His name is Jesus Christ.

I am praying for you.

Pistachio Pistachio

Whenever Keith leaves town, I always allow myself one indulgance. If he can vacation, I can at least eat something fun! Usually its mac & cheese from a box, which makes me feel like a kid, or a totinos pizza, which reminds me of lazy college days. This time, its a new find.... Pistachio Pistachio ice cream from Ben and Jerry's.

So I am walking around Walmart, buying ingredients for my Dad's father's day meal (Happy Father's Day Dad!!), and I find myself in the icec ream aisle, an aisle I never go down. See, I have this problem where I buy ice cream and eat the entire carton in one sitting, then promptly feel like crap and pass out from the sugar overload. So, I just don't buy it anymore. Until tonight.

I decided that since it has pistachios, a heart healthy nut, it would be better than the mint chocolate chip that I really wanted. As far as ice cream goes, its really not too bad. Its in calorie range with what a snack should be, the sugars are less than a candy bar, the fat is high - however, nuts are high in good fat and its not a low-fat yogurt or sherbert, so I had a sensible dinner and followed it up with a measured 1/2 c. of the ice cream and a movie at home.

Heaven. Pure and simple. It reminds me of the pistachio dessert my mom makes for family get-togethers. Yummmmmmm!

And they're off!

Keith and his brother Glenn left this afternoon for their week long kayak trip to the Boundary Waters. I have never seen 2 grown men more excited about anything!Don't you love the hats? When we picked Glenn up from the airport, he was wearing his and Keith didn't even recognize him! I am sure its going to be an awesome weekend for the brothers to be kayaking, fishing, hiking and camping. In 5 days, they will be kayaking and portaging 44 miles, 22 lakes, 2 streams and a creek with no guide or outfitter. They planned the route, sites and supplies themselves!

Big cheesy smiles for the great outdoorsmen.

Ugh.

I haven't had much to post about running because I haven't been doing any running in the last week. Ugh. I have shin splints. SHIN SPLINTS! Its such a beginner mistake/injury and I am mad at myself for letting it happen. So, I have placed my self on the 'injured list' or as I like to call it, a 'self-imposed running sabbatical.'

All I can figure, from my exhaustive internet research and talking to some running friends, is that it was the combination of:

• Running 4.5 miles, fast, in the heat, on the hills during the torch run, which is where I first noticed the pain.
• The next day doing 6+ miles, fast again, with more hills and no stretching.
• The next day was a fast 4 miles with Keith on the monon, which is flat, but it was hot out too.
• It doesn't help that I continued to run the rest of that week and it was not pretty. I struggled a lot and in my attempt to not make it any worse, sabbatical it is.

I did all those runs in my pretty, new, purple shoes and I think they needed a break too. In heat, with excessive pounding, shoes need time to re-compress back to their proper, supportive selves, and I clearly did too much. I am planning on switching between those and my previous shoes which still have about 100 miles left on them.

So, I am BORED. I miss running with my girlfriends on Tuesdays. I stare enviously at Keith as he heads out for a run and about pass out when I see him all glistening and sweaty afterwards. All I can do is ask how his run went and hope he goes into all the details so I can live vicariously through him. Time to ice the shins! Have a great evening.

Air Show Ice Cream

Sunday, Keith and I parked on a country road with our cooler of water and snacks and watched the Mt. Comfort airshow from the back of his truck. Why pay the $$ when the real action happens on the outskirts?

I really liked the bombers and the fighter planes, but the Blue Angels are always a good show for the stunts and formations they do. Watching the bombers and fighters swarm all around you was like being in a scene from 'Pearl Harbor.' Of course, we were in the flight path of these planes until we had to move, but it was worth it to see them so close, directly overhead. VERY cool!! I was like a little kid, so excited every time one flew over, making sure Keith was seeing it too. How could he miss it over the deafening noise?!

After we moved for the Blue Angel show, I had a 1st. The ice cream truck, playing its carnival music on loud speakers, drove down the road. Keith knew that growing up in the country, I had never experienced buying ice cream from a musical truck, and always talked about how its something I always wanted to do. We have heard the truck in our neighborhood in summers past, but by the time I got my $$, drove around trying to locate it, it was always gone. So when Keith flagged him down and he drove right up to us, I froze. Really, I froze. Here is a mental replay of my conversation in my head: "What do I order? Where is my purse? Crap, its at home. Go figure. What if he is a psychopath? Wait, he looks normal and has a permit. Phew. What about $$? I love Keith. He's whipping out his wallet for his 32 year old wife to get ice cream from a van. He is my hero. Focus! Ice cream! These prices are outrageous!" So I decided on a chocolate eclair bar for $1.50 and probably could have bought a box of 6 for that price at Walmart, but oh well. How can you put a price on a childhood dream I can now mark off my list?!?!

Moo!!

Ever since the torch run and the 6+ miler the following day, my calves have been killing me! Calves, like the muscles, not the grouping of many baby cattle kind. I initially thought it was because of the hills on both runs and not enough rest afterwards, but after having to walk/run quite a few times this past week, I have some other reasonable ideas:

• Lack of proper stretching. Sometimes I am lazy about taking the time to stretch afterwards, but I know it is a necessary evil.
• Heat/dehydration. When in doubt, blame the heat, right? You know you all do it... "I'm just not acclimated to the heat yet so I didn't a) run as fast b)run as far c)run at all d) you know the excuses. But really, I do think that if nothing else, its a mental thing and I always fall back on it. I clearly prefer cold weather running.
• Speed. I have really enojoyed running a lot more with Keith and with that comes some speed. When you don't rest your legs enough between fast runs, bad things happen. I can't seem to get him to realize that not every run has to be 'balls to the wall' fast but don't want to hold him back either. When did he get so fast anyways?! So, its become an exercise in submitting for me. He runs ahead, I silently curse my calves (moo), run a little, walk a little, and watch for him to double back to me, where he smiles and listens to be verbalize this list.
• Shoes. Keith thinks its my new shoes, but why would it start now, when they are still so new? I think I need to have a backup pair to switch on and off with so my new ones can have a day off to get the bounce back in them.

My solution?? Off to yoga it was last night! I really do think it helped loosen us both up. My calves (moo) feel a ton better today, all loose and ready to go on a girls run this evening. Keith has baseball every Wednesday night through the summer, so going to yoga a few times a month will really help him stay loose for his games. Eric showed him some additional moves to loosen him up, which rocks! I don't care what anyone says, yoga pretty much cures all that ails you.