Las Vegas Half-Marathon 2:39

I'm back! I have piles of laundry and my legs are so tight and sore! The race was awesome, I actually preferred the course over Long Beach. In Long Beach there were huge stretches of beach, just sand and water, nothing to look at or hint at how much further. In Vegas I know all of the hotels so I could set mini goals and have a general idea of how far I have gone. I made one really big mistake... I drank WAY too much water trying to hydrate and had to wait in line for a porta potty on the course! My official chip time was 2:39 which really completely bums me out. I want to improve at each race, not get slower! I saw the clock as I came down the final 3 miles, and pushed hard to make time up. My lungs were burning, legs pumping, even my arms were screaming at me to stop. I threw all of my little self forward and just pushed chanting to myself "Pain is temporary, Pride is forever!" I was like freaking Mel Gibson or something... ok maybe not but I felt like I was flying down that last mile. Every time I thought I was there it was just a little further, then I saw volunteers throwing their arms up and I saw a cluster of bright yellow CTF shirts and my babies waving at me from the sides, and I crossed the finish line in what felt like a blur. I received my medal and took my finisher's photo, and met my family who gave me tons of love and hugs. My Dad had promised to quit smoking when I finished the race, so we crumbled up his last cigarette and took pictures with our patches: his nicorette and mine for muscle pain!

Pictures will be up soon, I have to wait for my Dad to send them, I don't have a camera right now!

Vegas baby yeah!

I have butterflies all through my stomach, I am hyped up and just want to get on the road! I have to wait for Paul of course. Only 2 days until race day in Las Vegas! Yeah baby! I love Vegas but since my parents live there we have become honorary locals, meaning we don't really go to the strip. I love South Pointe, and even some of the Station Casinos. Everything is cheaper and less pretentious. I doubt we will even do that this time. We'll get in late tonight and settle in. Tomorrow morning we will hopefully see Paul's Aunt Lori, then head to the Health Expo. Straight from the expo we'll have dinner at Planet Hollywood in Ceasar's Forum with CTF, then head straight home for sleep... because we are meeting the team at 4:30 in the morning!!! Race time is 6 am, I plan to finish the half in 2:30, but since the course has a slight incline and my wisdom teeth set me so far back I just want to at least make the same time I did in Long Beach, 2:35. After the race we'll grab lunch and head back home! Wish me luck and hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

When Mommy is sick...

... Mica gets M&Ms for breakfast...

What a world... what a world....

I've been up since 4am. If you know me at all, you know I am a total bitch right now and would do horrible things to innocent people in my quest for adequate sleep. Unfortunately I cannot rip my own bladder out. I get urinary tract infections (UTI's) chronically and have since I was 12. If that is TMI for you go find a man's blog and read about cars because right now I don't give a flip. If you have never had a UTI, it feels like a small fire right in the place most women would hope to never have a fire, I mean unless that's your thing. It starts as a tickle, and within an hour I'm confined to my bathroom with a gallon of water, a bag of craisins, vicodin (I mean hey why not?) and a magazine. As I sat contemplating why my traiterous body is so intent on misbehaving, Paul woke up for work and came in to get ready. He had the damn nerve to tell me he wanted the toilet, I'm like do you see I am glued to this spot writhing in agony? Or close to it at least. Go use the other bathroom! Then he *sighed* at me! At me? I silently cursed him and gave him my silent evil jedi stare... he stalked off to the other bathroom and left me to whine in peace. I sat so long I think my butt still has a red ring on it. Supposedly Alka Seltzer provides "immediate relief" so at 5 am I found myself rifling impatiently through my huge medicine box which somehow has accumulated a whole lot of expired vicodin (how did that expire?) but no Alka Seltzer! I popped my emergency stash of antibiotics and am just as of this moment feeling a teeny bit better... but this better clear up because no way in hell am I running 13 miles at 6 am with a UTI this weekend!

Extreme Makeover: Blog Edition

Today my girlfriend Wendy started her own blog, The Devil Wears Sweatpants. Great name right? Haha Wendy you finally gave in! Welcome to the dark side, love. She came over today to get some help setting up, which is really cool because I remember just a few months ago going to Kadi over at Womb at the Innsane and begging for help. So I got Wendy going and her blog came out so cute I had to redo my own. So basically I made it about me, I'm good at that. I really felt like my last layout didn't reflect my true self, this blog is much more "Olivia." I do wish I could have found the damn ribbon in hot pink! Purple will suffice, and oh yes I am on the hunt for a hot pink ribbon image! Ok let me know how you all luf my new layout...

Creative Writing?

I am reading a book on creative writing right now, well not right now but over the last week. Thanks Adria! The book has started by suggesting I just write everything and anything, starting with my childhood. I'm supposed to sit each day and just write what I could see through a one inch window. I am probably going to use my blog to do this, so you will all be subjected to hideously self-absorbed clips from my childhood. If there is anything I have learned, nobody wants to hear about someone's childhood! I mean really, who cares if your Mommy got you the wrong Barbie or some boy picked on you? I think letting go of childhood pain is something we all accomplish as we get older, and revisiting those memories may not be the greatest of ideas. So I guess I am conflicted, I want to work through the assignments in the book, but I really don't want to recall being called Chia Pet and feeling too dark and ugly to all the blue-eyed white boys I crushed on. I mean cry me a river, right? I could reminisce on all of the surgeries, the hours spent in waiting rooms, my abandonment complex... but I am fully aware most of you right now are thinking "Don't, just please don't." *sigh* so then where does that leave me? I am incredibly tempted to dig out my old journals and share old things I wrote, hopefully reminding myself that once upon a time I was the kind of girl to scrawl out pages of pretentious yet imaginative short stories. I would dig back into my mind's eye and a running descriptive litany would pour onto the pages. I want to go back there... I'm heading to my closet now and hopefully by tomorrow when I sit down I will feel the juices flowing...

My beautiful babies...

Thank you so much Michelle for capturing these beautiful memories!