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| Have a safe and wonderful Halloween. |
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Monday, October 29, 2012
Hodges 15k race report
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| I got up at 6 am this morning. Thats a little late for race day but lucky me this was only about a ten minute drive away. Some of my friends ran the 50k this morning so I was feeling relieved I was not thats because I would not have ready. So I got ready and took my hand held grabbed a carrot cup cake and in the car I went. I thought I was running late but I was an hour early. That was a great way to start of my day being early. I am rarely early. |
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| My girl friend Charlene was at the race to watch her husband run the 50k so she got a picture of me running. That's me with the cool socks. I liked this race for many reasons. The first is the weather was perfect at 8:30am. The high was 85 today and that was at 12:30 so I am guessing it was around 70 this morning. The other thing I liked was even though I have ran this course many times it was well marked. They had a couple aid stations and I think the race director did a good job for his having this be the inaugural Hunt for Hodges race. I started out in the middle of the pack this time. I usually go near the back because I do not want to hold anyone back but today I told myself to go ahead and try to get in the middle. I felt good the entire time and paced myself behind this guy who was running at a little faster pace than I would go but I though so what G. Just try a little harder and I was fine. When I got to the turn around point I saw my friends mom volunteering at the aid station and I gave her a big hug because she was cheering for me. That made me happy. On my way back I pushed a little and put on some good tunes. Lake Hodges is really pretty in the morning before it gets hot. Running looking around and having some tunes on was perfect. |
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| I felt like I finished strong. I felt like wow its over all ready. 9 miles goes by quick when your having fun. |
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| I was happy with my time . This would be my fastest 15k. |
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| Now all we had to do was wait for our friends to come in. It was a good day. |
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Lake Hodges Trail Fest
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| The Lake Hodges Trail Fest I am running a 15k first thing in the morning and a couple of people I know are running the 50k. 15k sounds like a-lot of fun. Its a fun distance because you really do not get to tired. The race is about 15 minutes from my house and I will be staying to watch my friends finish the 50k. I do not think it will be to hot either. A very cool thing about running is you get to meet new people. I met this girl named Kate on a run about a month ago and we ran together for a couple of miles. She told me all about how she was training to do her first Ultra and this would be it she started a blog to write about her journey and just like me running is changing her lifestyle. Good Luck Kate. |
Have a great Sunday and I will have pictures soon.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Not to sure.
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| Does any one else feel a little off. I do. I have been in a bit of a creative funny place. I am missing my time to be crafty. I am trying to figure out how to make more time in my day. I need 26 hours in the day for sure. This little thing called balance is throwing me off a bit. So I need to find a solution. I am closing my eyes Clearing my heart and just letting go and hoping that tomorrow morning on my run it will come to me. It will come to me ..OK one more time.. I am closing my eyes Clearing my heart and letting go. |
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Painting Class Fun
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| My girl friend and I went to a Painting Class at a bar. It was really fun. They have everything ready for you and in 3 hours you have a finished painting. It really is hard to make the time to paint when you have work and driving to work and a family. I have decided that until I retire I will do one of these a month. It keeps me feeling creative and I get a girl time with my friend. |
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| We all paining a twisted tree. I am giving mine to Paola I think she will dig it. I think my 18 year old will like it. |
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| I am really excited about making time to do this. 3 hours can go a long way. Hope your week has been good. I have 2 races coming up so I will share with you my story. |
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Average
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| I was talking with my friend the other day and I asked him what he was the most afraid of and he said being average. I can not seem to get that thought out of my head. I keep thinking is there something wrong with being average. I consider myself to be average and I am content with that. There are a couple things in my life that I just cant seem to get enough of. My children, running and crafting . I feel that I am not an average mom and I hope we all feel that way about the way we love our kids. I know no one can love them as much as I do. I think all moms must feel the same way so we will take the children factor out. If you are reading this and think where is she going with this..I do not know. I love to run. I have loved running for about 9 years now. I love it for about 9 months a year until I get burned out and I stop only to realize a couple of months later how much I miss it and I go back. I also know I work hard at being able to get strong enough to run the distances I do. When I run a marathon or a half or some fun trail run I usually find I come in right in the middle. I am not the slowest and I am not the fastest. When I run I always look around and I feel I am in the middle of the pact. I work hard to be in the middle.. If you look at where I came in its in the middle. So this makes me average . I have always loved that. I think how cool I am right here not the best and not the worst but having a great time..A Perfect place for me. I also love to craft. I always have and I think I am an average creator of things. If I can learn to crochet watching you tube videos anyone can.. I am an OK at it I am not amazing but it fills me up . In this world where there seems so much thrown at us its finding those things that we love and not judging ourselves when we try that can definitely fill us up. I am often afraid I will lose my passion because its so much of what makes me happy. I believe in being average . The possibilities are endless. When I go into something It takes me a while to get it but I think to myself its OK because think of how much you have to learn G..I guess I often feel average and I am totally cool with it. Its just me sometimes I am a bit slow other times I am right on it. The trick is not to lose the love you have for what you do. OK so I guess when my friend told me that was his fear it scared me a little. I thought oh man is there something wrong with average..Then I figured it out..There is nothing wrong with it..Its actually kind of cool. That is what I had to share with you this fine Thursday afternoon. I hope you had a nice today at work and that somehow this made your day a bit better.. |
Instagram Favs and some words from me
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| I love this color !! Its so bright.. |
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| This is the junk in my trunk. today |
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| This one is almost done.. |
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| A lovely dress from Mod Cloth |
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| Life seems to go by so fast. I am so happy I have pictures to help me remember all of these things that help me smile. The little things throughout my day that help my life seem brighter. Life is good and I am really grateful to be here. Making my way though this great gift called my journey. ........... Don't ever give up on yourself. You are your greatest gift. and There is only one you. so take picture and wear bright colors dance in the car. sing go outside.. If you have it in you run and if you don't walk. You are here for a reason Just be you. |
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Lacy Fall Dress
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| I have decided that this is one of my favorite fall dresses. I love how it fits and the pretty lace makes me feel so girly. Its from H&M so the price was great too. I am not very fashionable but I love a beautiful dress.. |
Monday, October 15, 2012
It finally feels like fall
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| Hi guys, How was your weekend ? I have my kids for about 10 days straight and that makes me happy . I feel like I need to get all of our activities in before they go see there dad. I believe most divorced parents must feel the same way. We went to the movies to see Frankenweenie...a must see for anyone who is still in touch with there inner kid or has kids. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside and ready for Halloween. Do you have your decorations up yet ? I put lots of spider webs up and hands and feet. I also went shopping with my kids I got new boots...sigh I have to tell you that I went to my Cross fit class on Friday night and I got my butt kicked. I decided I need to be OK with doing the Cross fit lite. Then I need to find a balance between running and working out. I think my approach was not thought out well. I am going to just listen to my body and do what I can.. ..................... In the crafting part of my brain I feel a need to buy some yarn and make a couple cool scarfs. I need more time... I hope you had a great weekend. I had my first Pumpkin Spice Latte yesterday.. |
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Finding Balance
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| I have been painting just a little bit. Its not great but its cute. I am making or should I say putting together a small part of my house that will help me stay motivated to keep running. I love to run but I also want to get better and that is going to take planing and hard work. I also want to paint more but between my real and most important job being a good mom and work and then running well I just get tired..I am so grateful that I get to do what I love..So trying to find balance is what I will be working on this month. Balance in my life and trying to slow down,even though I really do not want to slow down. I love doing things with my kids and running with my friends and having date nights with my dad. I will be planning in my journal how do we do everything we want to do and do it well ..Have a great day and this is whats going on in Gloria's head.. |
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
My favorite Beatle..
Happy Birthday John Lennon
I believe he is one of the most talented song writers ever. His music reminds me of my dad. I am sorry he was taken from us so early.
He would of been 72 today..
Monday, October 8, 2012
Long Beach Marathon Review
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| Yesterday I ran the Long Beach Marathon. It was was my 10th 26.2 marathon which made it special. This was a very pretty run. There are a couple of things that make a marathon good, the most important is good running weather. I love when it is overcast and I am running a long distances. The temperature was an amazing 66 degrees which is perfect. There was a lot of corrals and usually there is someone there to make sure you are in the right one. The purpose of a corral is to ensure you are with people who are at the same pace. For some reason there seemed to be a lot of walkers at the front of the race. It's always funny to me when a group of 2 or 3 walkers takes up so much of the road, especially when they won't move out of the way for the runners... It took longer than usual for the race to thin out. The first 10 miles were very scenic as it was along the beach. I saw some amazing homes along the way. There were lots of spectators and live music which makes the race a lot of fun. |
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| I personalized my bib.. Don't you love it??? The second half was not quite as exciting. There were lots of water stations and plenty of people to cheer us along the way. I really did not think as much during this run as I usually do. I just enjoyed myself and embraced how free I felt. My knee bothered me at the beginning of the race but it went away once I warmed up. Something always hurts... I think this is a great marathon and I hope to run it again next year. |
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| I loved how big the medal is too..
For result corrections, please use our request form
Updated: Oct 7, 2012 03:37 PST
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Saturday, October 6, 2012
My Favorite fall song
Living in San Diego makes it a little hard to get the whole fall feeling. I think we had a very nice summer this year. Let me say that I am happy that its fall . Living in San Diego sometimes it can feel like summer all year round. This song feels like a cool October night to me. I bought this album last night and I felt very fall-sh all night long.( I know that's not a word) I am also getting my small wardrobe ready. Every winter I buy a pair of new boots..
I also try to give a pair away every other year but that hard to do.
Anyway I am off to work out and I leave you with this great melody.
Friday, October 5, 2012
Painting Class
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| I took an art class last night. I really like these classes because in about 3 hours you have a finished piece. I think its good when its kinda fast paced because you do not have time to second guess yourself. You just have to go with it and do your best. I often wish I could just trust that go voice with out thinking about it. Specially when it comes to art . I guess maybe that comes with time and practice. The more you do it the more confidence you build in your ability the less you listen to that inner critic. I hope you have a great weekend and I will be back with the Long Beach Marathon update on Monday.. |
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Running Thoughts
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| I wanted to share a little bit about whats going on in my world today. I am still happy I finished my first 50k. I believe that I have done two races that I really know I did all my training for . I know both times physically it paid off. What I mean by that is not that I lost weight because I weight between 125 to 130 no matter what I do. My body like that weight so I do not fight it. What I mean is that I because I did all my training and during my races I never hit a wall. That made my running experience so much better. Hitting the wall sucks. For me when I first started running marathons miles 17 to 21 were painful. I convinced myself I could not get passed 20. The more I ran and the farther I went that 20 mile block went away. Its true the more you practice the better your body learns what it is you wanted to do and next thing you know your there. So I am looking at new races that are in beautiful new places. I have found a couple as soon as I sign up I will let you know. I am running the Long Beach Marathon this sunday and that should fun . I love a challenge and for me getting there is the fun part..I learn a-lot about myself and what I can do.. |
Monday, October 1, 2012
I tri-ed.. De-Soto
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| I did the De Soto sprint -tri this past Sunday. My girlfriend Ally asked me if I would do it with her a couple months ago and I got excited and said YES. The first thing I do when I really want to make myself do a race is pay for it. If you pay you have to show up, right ? When I pay I make myself find the courage I need do it. I thought I would have plenty of time to train. I did have plenty of time to train but I did not swim. I am an good backyard swimmer, heck we had a pool growing up. You get the picture. I was definitely nervous about swim. I was happy that it was a short distance, 400M. So here I am in the water bobbing up and down waiting for them to tell us to go when a fellow female swimmer tells me. It's perfectly OK to just take your time and enjoy the swim... This will all be over before you know it. There is the universe telling to just go with it G. Next thing you know tI am swimming with a bright pink cap on my head in San Diego's Mission Bay. I kept thinking how much I liked swimming and how cool it would be to learn how to do it right. I swallowed a ton of water and to be honest I think I suck at swimming. When I reached the sand I thought, wow that was fun.. Next came the transition from water to bike. I ran to my bike and tried to take my wet suit off but it was so hard to take off. I finally did it, dried myself off, put my shoes on and went for my bike ride. It was easier than the swim and I still had to look forward to my run. I forgot to eat that morning so I was hungry but I just kept going. After a strong bike ride I got back to the transition area and quickly hung my bike up and changed shoes then I was off. I was just enjoying myself and taking it all in. I never saw my friend Ally during the race but I kept looking for her. I did see some special people that were there to both support and cheer me on. I started running and I noticed my legs felt wobbly. It took me about ten minutes to get my legs under me and the next thing you know the race was over. It was fun and I would like to try again since I have so much room for improvement. I can only get better right? I went home and took the best nap ever. I was so tired I passed out for 2 solid hours. I am having a lot of fun showing up for these events and doing my best. The hardest part for me is always getting out of my car. Once I get out of the car and I go get my stuff ready I am in the zone. I do feel like this part of me is changing. It isn't as hard for me to get out of the car as it used to be. I can't explain it but as soon as I figure it out I will share. I think it has to do with being courageous.. I almost forgot this event was well organized and they did a great job letting pros and newbies do their thing. The event people helped you out the entire time and, with the exception of a few overly competitive and rude male cyclist, the people were very nice. I would do this event again for sure.. |
