Happy Birthday Naomi

Today is my daughter, Naomi's 9th birthday. She was born the same minute as a 7.4 earthquake that we had many years ago. My legs were still up in the stirups when the earth shook. I tell her that she made the earth shake when she came out. She is are little earthquake baby.
Her uncle Steve said when she was born that she was one of the cutest babies that he had ever seen.
She is absolutely beautiful and very passionate about life. I love and adore Naomi.
She has played soccer, now plays basketball, soon will play softball, but her big skill is running and she is so fast. We'll keep her in the other sports for now.
She is a great reader, likes school, likes the medical field.
She loves her sisters, sometimes has a funny way of showing it.
Happy 9th Birthday today Naomi.

The picture was taken at Forest Park.

My oldest daughter, Naomi-9 wrote this. She has a huge interest in the medical field. I think this is cute, but looking at the photo, I wouldn't want that person for my doctor.
It says; "I want to be a docter when I grow up. I think the best thing about this job would be helping peaple. the hardest thing about this job would be erning more money. In order to get into this Profession I will have to help someone to prepare.
YOU GO GIRL! FULFILL YOUR DREAMS, YOU CAN DO IT MISS NAOMI

Blow Bubbles

Life is too short to tell your kids "no you can't sit on the dog and blow bubbles."

Running in the rain

My schedule says that I am to run 8 miles today. When I wake, I can hear the sound of the rain and it is coming down hard. I roll over and I think "Oh, Lord I don't want to go out in that." I slowly pull myself out of bed, dress, eat breakfast, take another peak outside and sigh. "Well here goes". I take a step outside and within 30 seconds, I am completely drenched. "Gotta love that Oregon weather" The wind is blowing the rain sideways, into my ear, water is dripping off of my hat, my dog keeps trying to shake the water off of himself, but it's raining so hard, he has no luck. With each step more and more water is leaking into my sock, causing that squishing sound. A car drives by, speeding of course and splashes a little water on to me. "Gee thanks" I say.
After about a mile, all this rain doesn't matter. I am wet, I'm soaked, there is no turning back. I keep running, I lift my face up to the sky and let the water hit my face and think that it feels refreshing against my hot skin.
I stomp through the puddles, I shake my head on my dog for pay backs, I run, I laugh. When I return home, I shake off my overcoat, take off my soaked shoes and think "what a nice run."

Egyptian Art

Interesting art given to us from my mother in law after she visited Egypt.

Hagg Lake

I have been having a hard time finding the words to describe my experience running my 5th Ultra marathon at Hagg Lake in Forest Grove, Or.
I am thinking it is because I have been having a hard time recouping from my experience. I was nauseas after the race and the day after.
But here goes~
Hagg was hard this year and muddier than it was in 2008, when I ran it last. I came in at 6:57:59, in 2008 I came in at 6:56:50.
I was really nervous going into the run, woke up at 4am, couldn't go back to sleep. I'd think about the race and my heart would start racing.
The course was to do a out and back for 3 miles on the road and then head out onto the trail around the lake, two times.
The first 4 miles, I was shaky, nervous and my nose was bothering me. I was breathing pretty hard around the first loop. It took me about 3:15 min to go around the first time and I eventually calmed down. But I got really grumpy before the end of the first loop, seriously wanted to quit. I told myself to just change my shoes and socks, which helped and stop at the aid station.
But the last 4 miles before the start/finish was the muddiest. It was take your shoe off and maybe your foot off as well. Plus, it was long section of it. The final last mile was the worst mud, maybe longer than 1/8 of a mile or more. It was horrible. I didn't want to run through it, it may have taken my shoe!
My toe would start throbbing in pain throughout the 2nd loop. I'm glad that first aid station during the 2nd loop didn't treat me like a baby when I was griping, cause I would have quit. I told this other runner, a man to not follow me because I'm grumpy. Poor guy. He was running his first ultra, longest he had ran was 13 miles. He came in about 20 or so min after me.
One part of the race, was like going through a kid pool, clear water, but a lot of it. The 2nd time around, I just darted through it, but then missed my turn off, realized it fairly quickly and turned around. I wasn't eating well on the run, drinking a lot and I kept taking their salt/electrolyte tabs at every aid station, never did get a leg cramp. I mostly ate gummy bears, pretzels, oranges. I brought a sandwich, but only ate 1/2 of a 1/2. I would try to speed up during the 2nd loop, but my legs would want to cramp, so I couldn't. I was nauseated the night after and yesterday. I would just eat whatever sounded good, asparagus, sprite, applesauce.
Oh, I would kind of feel bad about being so slow, but I just can't speed up. I need to just be happy that I finished my 5th ultra.
I'm glad its over.
Today, 2 days later. I am feeling okay. Slept good last night, went to bed at 9PM with a sleeping pill. Legs hurt a little, ate spaghetti for breakfast, tired. I'll get through this and will be off running again in no time.

Great equalizer

The following text is from the book that I am reading, 50/50. I had to re-read it a few times. I think it truly speaks what marathoners and ultramarathoners go through during races.

"I love to interact with people when they're most exposed-when every layer of pretension and vanity has been stripped away and left strewn along the pathway. The marathon mercilessly rips off the outer layers of our defenses and leaves the raw human, vulnerable and naked. It is here you get an honest glimpse into the soul of an individual. Every insecurity and character flaw is open and on display for all the world to see. No communication is ever more real, no expression ever more honest. There is nothing left to hide behind. The marathon is the great equalizer. Every movement, every word spoken and unspoken, is radiant truth. The veil has been obliterated. These are the profound moments of human interaction that I live for."~Dean Karnazes

Tomorrow, 2/20, I am running my 5th 31 mile race.