Mother, Run, Hike

In the last year I learned more about running, including that clothes make a huge difference on how a race goes. I also learned that shoes make a big difference, especially for long distances. I don't have a lot of extra money to spend on expensive clothes, so I make do with what I can find for discounts and sales, and some of my absolute favorites have been very cheap things. Here are a few of my favorite running things I used this year. Shoes- I went through 5 pairs of sneakers this year. 2 Nikes, 1 Rykas, 1 pair of New Balance and 1 Asics. The New Balance and Asics were left overs from last year and were fine, until I had to go from 5 miles to 8. My Rykas lasted me 6 months and were wonderful for running, until they tried to kill my left toe! My favorite running sneakers this year were my Nike Free 5.0. But I have to admit that I got girls shoes, because Nike Women's shoes are too big on my feet. Best yet, I found this at the Nike Outlet for $30 ...

Hello dear Random Strangers! Thank you for stopping by to read my ramblings on things. This is likely to be the last of my post for this year, as I have off from work, and will be spending lots of time with my son. So, wanted to go back and relive some of my favorite races of the year. My favorite Races It is really hard to pick a favorite race, I really did love all 17 of them! But the three that immediately jump to my mind are The Kennett Run, Bird In Hand 5K, and The Hershey Half Marathon. Kennett Run 5K There are many reasons for the Kennett Run to be my favorite run, it's the first race I did in The United States, and it's one that I've been doing for years. This year most of my family was there for the event, my sisters and I ran the 5K. My brothers looked after my son and my niece, and we went to My sister's bakery after the race. The race itself is hard! The first mile goes slightly uphill with some rolling hills, but with all of the excitement, my legs...

Ahh!! It's done, gifts have been wrapped and unwrapped. Food has been cooked and eaten and it was all wonderful! Another Christmas season is almost over, and it leaves a sense of family, happiness and joy. Here are a few highlights of the Christmas weekend. Wednesday, December 23rd, 2015 I went to my son's Holiday Party, it was nice. My son gave his teacher the card and gift card that was her holiday present. We quickly left and headed to pick up the last things we needed at Wegmans. It was packed. We got a cookie. We went home. Our family trip to Longwood had a few glitches, but we went, we saw the beautiful green house. We only wish that it was not raining the whole time we were there! We were completely soaked, but it was wonderful to see my son taking pictures of everything he could find and my niece enjoyed seeing the water. My son took this picture Thursday, December 24, 2015 My brothers invited me and Roger to try out the Sushi place in K...

So as far as running injuries go.... this is the strangest I've had! So far my running injuries include, but are not limited to : shin splints, knee pain, sore legs, sore lungs, bruise ribs, blisters, black toe, which lead to lost nail... and now I was bitten by a vampire... ok, I'm being quite dramatic for this one.... I got headphones burn (Not sure that is a real term) on my neck. Sunday after zumba, I went off to run my 10 miles. I wore a new Under Armour all weather shirt at I had purchased the month before, and it proved perfect for the weather! kept me warm for the whole run. Well, I like to hide my headphone cord under my shirt, to keep them out of the way and pulled them from my neck to my ears. That does the job pretty well, and I've never had any problems. That is until this Sunday. I went and did the 10 miles, was very very cold after the run, quickly headed to my nearest coffee shop to arm myself with a hot beverages. Drove and picked up my son, went to t...

Back in the beginning of December I posted a Surviving Christmas Post , giving myself goals to complete by this week, breaking it down week by week. I know My last week goals were to freak out, but I'm proud to say that will likely not happen. While I did not accomplish all my goals, I came pretty close. Accomplished 1. Planned family trip- My brother asked if we could go to Longwood Gardens  for Thanksgiving, but many other things didn't line up. So I offered to plan a trip with all my siblings for December 23rd. While it was harder to get agreements from some, I got it all planed and arranged. Our family has lived 30 minutes from Longwood for over 15 years, and while some of us have gone before, not the entire family has ever been there before. I took my mom back in 2004, and took my son and my sister in 2012. But my brothers and older sister have not made it there yet. I'm excited for all of us to be there. While the chances for fights and/or disagreements are h...

I cannot believe I did 17 races this year! 14 5Ks, 2 10Ks and 1 half marathon! I'm a slow runner, but with training and some crazy exercises Roger made me do, this year I got faster. I keep track of my times and compare my results... because I enjoy torturing myself with the numbers! I have improved my times by 2 whole minutes! Last year my best runs were coming in at 29 minutes. And I remember telling my sister and myself that I would never could beat those times. But I kept surprising myself with each run! My Motivation Last year I finished the Kennett Run at 32 minutes and was devastated! I wanted to be faster! so I kept running, and this year I trained, and trained harder because I wanted to have a better time at the Kennett Run. That day was one of the hottest in May, and by the time we started running it was 74. But I did it, I ran the Kennett run at 26.48. It was amazing! My beautiful sisters and I getting ready to take off for the Kennett Run... I'm the one in...

I am so totally ready for Christmas ! I might not have all the presents purchased, or have any clue on to what I am getting my son for Christmas, or have told Santa what he wants... but I'm ready! this year I've been listening to Christmas music, even while working out, to get myself more excited about the day. And I'm also trying something different, I'm making ANOTHER check list of goals for this week, because if I don't have all my presents purchased by Sunday, everybody will be getting gift cards. Playlist name : Buying present for my son Goal : Get three *awesome* present for an awesome boy and notify Santa of his request Time: After work this week *my own definition of awesome anyway* Carol of the Bells- Last year my son had the chance to visit the High School Symphony and since then, he has loved this song and Wizards of Winter. We have this song on repeat for Christmas this year. Los Peces En El Rio - This song is a kids favorite in Mexico, howeve...

Aaaahhh... It has been another amazing year! Ok, Dear Random Strangers... if anybody is reading this... I enjoy writing down what the best things of my year were, this will be the first year I'm posting them online. Running has gotten me in touch with new song, and reminded me of old favorites. Here are a few that kept my legs moving on both, long and short runs. Pitbull and Gente De Zona- Piensas I don't listen to the radio, I don't watch TV, but I am addicted to Instagram, and I first saw about this song on The Most Bad Ones Instagram page. For anybody who doesn't know, The Most Bad Ones are the official Pitbul dancers, who are amazing! Total women crush! I wish to learn to dance like them. I listened to this song most of the summer and played during most of my long runs. Francesca Maria- Popee- Zumba version I first heard Francesca Maria at Zumba with her song Dale, one of my favorites from last year. And this year Popee became another favorite. I practice...

I'm making a full confession here... I don't watch much TV. I simply don't have time for it, between spending precious time with my son, running, doing zumba, yoga and weight training, there is simply no time.  About 3 years ago, during my divorce I went through a very serious Netflix binge, that is how I finished Gossip Girl and Doctor Who in two months. But I realized that although both were great shows, I was watching people have amazing adventures, and fabulous lives while I was sitting on my couch lamenting my life. So I made the decision to cut back on watching TV. By 2013, I cut down to local channels only by 2014 I cut all cable, and by 2015 I cut all connection with Comcast... which I find to be a horrific company. But I am in a relationship with a man who enjoys watching TV, and enjoys many TV shows. We have already had a few disagreements on the amount of TV each of us consumes, but we have come somewhat of an agreement. He can w...

If I haven't said it before, dear random strangers, I will say it again, Pennsylvania is a beautiful state for parks. This year we had the pleasure of visiting more beautiful parks, hiking areas and this was our experiences with them. Swatara State Park We made it out to Swatara State Park for the 4th of July weekend, and accidentally hiked 8 miles. We picked this park because we wanted to do a section of the Appalachian Trail. Roger and I didn't talk about how long we would hike. We ended up parking in the middle of the park, because we missed the official entrance to the park, the one with bathrooms. When we got to the unofficial parking lot and saw that the bathroom was in the other side of the park, we had no other option but to hike there. The trail was a mix of pebble rock wide trails and part of an abandoned road. We found many people there on their bikes, well more people on their bikes than hiking. The park was beautiful, the abandoned road had a ghostly,...