Goodbye June

The month of June has come to an end and so we must say good bye June but HELLO JULY… I learned a couple of good things this month. I learned that I can not complete all challenges I set out for myself. Reason is just because I said I could do it does not always mean its the best thing for me. Its OK to stop when my body tells me no more. I also learned that 50 is my number. I can run 50 miles comfortably every week and still feel fine. That means I am not grumpy or to tired. I can not run one mile over 50 because then I am not a very happy mom. I get grumpy and just tired. My kids need me to be happy so 50 it is. I learned that the gremlins in my head are just that and just because you feel something does not make it true. You have to fight to stay positive and it super important to speak kindly to yourself .. I had a ton of fun running two marathons this month. I am looking forward to my 50 miler in a couple months and the 3 marathons I need to run along the way for training. So onward and upward we shall go because this girl has dreams of running many races . Thank you for reading and letting me share my stories with you. Happy Miles,
                     G
Oh ..Rabbits Rabbits Rabbits

Hootie And The Blowfish - Time (LP Version)

The weekend came and went and this song sums up what my Sunday felt like. I don't mean the lyrics this is just how I feel .I did not have my two of my kids they where with there dad the other one is at a concert so it was just the three of us. I got my run in and a birthday party that included swim suits a pool and beer. You know how sometimes things are going just right and you do not want to mess it up. I feel like that. Things are good and it feel like a Hootie kind of Sunday.

My Standing Run date w my Dad

Hi Guys ..Happy Saturday . Life is getting back to normal and that means Saturday mornings belong to long runs and my dad. This Saturday was no different with a 15 mile that was asking to be ran and my dad at my side it was looking like a great morning. The icing in the cake was that the sun was hiding. I love cloudy mornings. Here we are setting out to run. We chose a new route because sometimes the old one just get old. It was pretty cool to change it up. I saw totally different things . We ran through Pacific Beach so this made for people interesting people watching. My dad ran some of it with me and then we met up at the end.

I am really liking that these long runs are getting easier. I mean I don't know but that's the point right ?? easy is good. I make sure to stay at an easy pace the entire time. 10 minute miles and I don't push it. Easy Peasy was my motto.  

I feel totally spoiled living in San Diego we have great weather and that makes such a huge difference when it comes to having good runs. So this Saturday was made up off ..
Long Run
Food
The Western States 100
and
Beer
Kids
see today was a good day. Happy miles peeps..

Quick Note

They keep growing

They say change is the only constant and I know its true..My older kids go to year round school and there done. Next year one will be in 8th grade the other in 6th grade. They have changed as much as Jack this year. They are both taller than me. (sad face) I am so proud of my children and I adore them but yes its hard watching my babies get big. This is us at there school concert. Last week.

Seattle Rock and Roll Marathon done

4 am came really early on Saturday morning but I was already up and getting all my stuff ready to go run. There was the I fact that I couldn't make coffee because I did not want to wake anyone up that sucked a little. I was hoping that down stairs there would be coffee because I need my caffine before I ran.  I run with a camel back so I got my GU brew ready in it. There was  my  gels and my phone and head phones and sun block. Some money and my ID. Oh and don't forget the butt balm. ( this stuff saves my ass) You have to balm your butt because aint nobody got time for chaffing. Now its 4:30 and I am ready I go down stairs and for a cup of coffee and maybe toast or a bagel.They had both they charged 2$ for a cup of coffee I thought that was a little crazy.  At 7 am the coffee and breakfast was free. Things like that bother me.  Here is the number one thing that I did not like about this race its that  you have to find your way to the starting line. There are no bus that takes you. You need to go to the train station and take the light rail and then the bus. That just bites.  So I started walking at 5 am to the train station and I did not find it. I saw lots of and lots of homeless people and the walk was scary. So I finally  met some people that were just walking to the Space Needle and they let me walk with them and about 15  minutes later I was there. So I got to warm up my legs I guess. Seriously It was a little scary. Now I was not prepared for how many people would be there..Holy Cow. This made the lines at san Diego look like a walk in the park. There space was just smaller and we where all cramped. It was a tight fit but it was exciting there was a buzz in the air. 

I was in supposed to be in corral 10 but I couldn't  make it because there was so many people I made it to corral 24 and that fine. The weather was amazing 60  and just a bit cloudy it was what you call perfect running weather. The marathon started at 7 but I started at 7:34. I spoke to a bunch of people wished them luck and then I retreated to my world. I started running and decided I would go for 4 hours. Why not right. I kept telling myself how many opportunities do you have to run a marathon G. I wanted to see if I could do a bit better that the San Diego marathon.

How beautiful is this …I ran along Washington street for about 4 miles and it was just picture perfect. The trees where huge green and lush. The sun was shinning but it was not hot. There was a cool breeze that came of the water.

If you look under the tree you can see Mt.Rainer. This was a beautiful run. I think if I would have ran the half I would of felt cheated of the views they where magnificent.

This was the hardest part for me. The bridge is about 3 miles long it was boring and late in the race. The people had really spaced out so I was mostly alone but the view was amazing. On the way out it was down hill and on the way back an up hill not a bad up hill but when its mile 17 everything seems harder. I was able to stay focused and I was doing well. I thought I would do about 4 hours so I just kept running.

This was at the end of bridge see I was like..Oh man I am tired. I still kept on going. I kept thinking strong mind strong body. I drank all my Gu brew. I felt strong. The longest mile was the last one. I actually got sick as soon as I crossed the finish line. Yuck. So I crossed the finish line and then I got a text telling that my time was 3:54. I was super excited and after all that worrying I did just fine. I am really happy with my time. I loved the run and having my family there was even better. The medal was kinda cool. Its the coffee cup below. There you go that is about everything. Happy Running. 

Participant Detail

Finished In:

03:54:37

11082

Gloria King

 CA

Age: 42 | Gender: F

• Overall: 444 out of 2210
 
• Division: 19 out of 151
 
• Gender: 113 out of 1003

• 5 km
• 10 km
• 10 mi
• half
• 17.9 mi
• 20 mi

• 0:28:06
• 0:54:19
• 1:25:23
• 1:51:26
• 2:37:05
• 2:54:42

• Pace
• Chip Time
• Clock Time

• 8:57
• 03:54:37
• 04:22:04

Visiting Seattle leading up to the Rock and Roll Marathon

 So here I am again with a small photo dump. It is really pretty here. Its been sunny and perfect weather. OK so today we went to gas Works park and I used to live in green house boat 5th from the right about 14 years ago.  It looks the same.

This is Jack announcing to the world he is 10 months old today. 

so today was about going to the Expo picking up my bib. You can fallow me on twitter if you like. I signed up for the posting thing..That's kinda cool. Then we walked all around down town and had lunch. Finally we headed over to the park to play and run around. I have not gone for a run in 3 days so I am excited to get my legs moving tomorrow. Then to end our day we asked suri about where we should go for good Chicago style pizza ..

Now I am of to bed because 5 am comes early so next post will be about my run. Wish me luck and I will see after I run my butt of for about 26.2 miles.

Greetings from Seattle

A quick hi  !!! from Seattle . We are on our way to the expo . The Rock and Roll puts on huge and fun Expos..
Happy Friday
G

Running Ramblings before a race

Here are my thoughts today on traveling to run. I do not travel much let alone travel to run. Its a great thought traveling to run a marathon. I feel like when I signed up to run The Seattle Rock and Roll it sounded great. So here I am in my hotel room in Seattle and my family is with me. I am not feeling the excitement I thought I would. The flight that was 2 and a half hours felt like 5 hours with Jack. I think I was just worried about his ears and keeping him happy and I made it more stressful than it was but he was fine. There was no crying  and his ears where fine. It was mostly me. I am not the best traveler. Tomorrow is the expo and a bunch of my friends fly in. I am hoping that will make me feel better. I guess I am also feeling like what if I am slower that the Rock and Roll in San Diego …what a let down. Then at the same time I don't see how the heck I can run faster than I already did. I bust my ass running and I do what I can and I just don't see how I can run faster than I already did. I know its not fast by most people running abilities but in Gloria's world running a 4 hour marathon is really good. Lets go back 9 years to 2004 my first Rock and Roll marathon . I ran that in 5 hours 28 minutes so that makes my 4 hour marathon  great. 
There you go… 
Lets see. I think that is my biggest problem I am afraid that I won't do as well as  did last month. I guess  what I have to do is start believing I can. The other thing is I have to want to do better. You know when your almost afraid to want to do better because you just might. That's my brain right now. 
This will be my 14th marathon. My best time ever 3:54 at St. George a couple years ago. Then a couple San Diego marathons right around 4. Yes I am feeling nervous that everyone flew here to see me run and that I might let them down and myself. 
Bottom line is I love running thats why I flew all the way to seattle to run. This is the reason I put in so  many miles in and work out is so that I can run many miles some what easily. Well lets see how it goes. Ill let you know. Excuse the crazy ups and downs of this post but it me right now.

Happy Mom

There is nothing that makes me happier 

than having happy kids. 

This is the little person I spent the most time with right now .. I love him so much. His brother sisters and dad adore this little guy. I think he can feel it and that's why he is such a happy boy. Thank you buddy for being so amazing.

Fathers Day Hike

We celebrated Fathers Day by going on a hike on part of the PCT. We chose this trail because Jeff ran part of his 100 mile race on this trail and told us this was his favorite part. It was really nice because it was lush and green and there was lots of trees. I loved it because it was cool and I love walking through a trail and hearing the wind going through the leaves. Listening to that makes the moment feel magical to me. It makes me feel like I am waiting for the little fairies to fly out and carry me away.

There was a good group of us so there was lots of conversations. My favorite was Jeff telling stories about his 100 mile race. I get so excited hearing about all the little details of what running for 30 hours feels like. It sounds like its a crazy head game that you play with yourself to get through it.

There was some color but not much. It was mostly green and some yellow. Living in San Diego there is not much time for me to drive to a place like this. I takes about an hour and half to go to Cuyamaca so when I do get to go it feels like its a big deal.

All of this was part of his run. It looks hot but it really was not. We walked about 5 miles and even Jack was happy the whole time.

He was happier at the end when he got to eat.  

Here they are. Happy fathers Day to these cool dads.

This is how we celebrated Fathers day. I hope you had a good Sunday too.

Happy Fathers Day

I feel really lucky to be able to call this man my dad. I love having him as my friend and as my dad. My dad left when I was about 1 and I rarely saw him. When I was 6 I moved to a new country and I all of a sudden I had a new family. This can all be a little scary when your a little girl. I knew when I met my uncle mike who I know call dad that he loved me. He took interest in me. He showed up for all my school stuff. He loved me unconditionally and that's what a dad is supposed to do. Show up and love his kids. My dad did just that. To this day he shows up for every thing. I love you so much dad thank you for always being there for me..

Running Ramblings

Running has changed my life is so many ways. Its until lately that as I look around what I am cultivating in my life that I can see it so clearly. I ran my first marathon 2004 and for me the training was the best part. I lived in Boulder Colorado ( one of the most beautiful places on this planet ) and I ran with Team in Training. I ran for my late husband ( paola's dad ) roger died of cancer at the age of 26. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about him . He was bald chubby funny and I can honestly say that I think he was the first person to really see me. I was crazy in love with him. So I ran for him and I was hooked.  I pushed a double stroller everyday for 5 miles and when I saw a race I signed up drove there ran alone  and came home. It was and still is one of the feelings I love the most. Showing up for me. Now that I have been running for 11 years I know what works for me. I am changing my diet all the time and I am always working on my posture. Good form goes along way. Running has made me take charge of my time differently too. I plan around my daily run.  I take the kids to school and then come home and let Jack nap. Then I clean up make beds. ( I make all the beds in my house everyday) Its a habit I picked up and its a good one. Then when Jack wakes up I feed him and read a couple books to him and start dinner. Then I put him in the stroller and we go. Its perfect he likes it and so do I. I put my I phone in the side pocket in the BOB and put on baby Einstein music from Pandora  in the stroller.
We stop at the swings and on the way back he falls asleep. I never g to longer than 9 miles or 10 depending on his nap. Then we come home get in the tub and LIFE goes on , but whats changed is I get it. I get how lucky I am to be able to run so I try not to take it for granted. This sport has made me more grateful more alive and more aware. Today for breakfast I had sweet potatoes but then again yesterday I had Mcdonalds.. I am not sure if this makes much sense but its me. 

San Diego 100 mile endurance run

One of my closest friends husband ran the San Diego 100 mile run yesterday .
Crazy stuff. I went to see him finish and he did not look as good at the finish as he does in this picture so I chose this one. His name is Jeff and I ran my first Ultra with him. I did not finish he did. He ran it under 30 hours. This is his 3rd year running it. Last year he did not make the cut of point in time so I am sure having gone through that experience make getting this huge medal a sweeter victory. Mike was one of his pacers running 21 miles with him. That is 2:30 am to 12 noon. I would think having a pacer with fresh legs is a huge help.

I am super proud of Jeff and want to say
CONGRATULATIONS on a job well done. Finishing a 100 mile race is huge...

Letting go and Letting in

I can't believe its already June 8th. Time goes by fast when your having fun . Its Sunday night and I am so tired. The week wrapped up on an unexpected but very healing note. Its funny how everything I needed to walk away from and completely let go of all came to me at the same time. I have been barking up the wrong tree and in so many ways. I am walking as far away from all of that and focusing my energy on the things that are important . A friend reminded me the other day that everything I need is right in front of me. How do we forget that sometimes. I have spent the last week  really showing without words everyone in my house how much I appreciate them. Its simple to let someone know you love them without saying anything. Making my kids bed unexpectedly while there in the shower so when they come out its done. Getting a certain someone Chap stick and new travel goods and secretly putting it in there bag before they leave and my favorite was getting everyone up a little early and getting doughnuts before school sitting in the car and making them say 3 kind things about everyone in the car.

I keep thinking my kids must be thinking my mom is crazy but when they grow up they will hopefully get it. Love comes in all shapes and sizes and showing someone you love them can be done in so many ways. The best way to do it is to do something. I don't want to look back and wish I would have done this or that I want to show them now today. 

 So here we go another week. I have been thinking what can I do this week to make my families life a little more special. Ill let you know what I come up with.

My new running mantra is Letting Go and Letting In
I am going to focus on letting things just go and then Letting the good In

The san Diego Rock and Roll part 2

It took me a while to get back here because I have has a sick little boy and this lithe boy want me 24/7 when he is not feeling well. This morning he woke up much better so here I am. My Marathon experience was a great one. It was over cast for about 70 percent of the race and that's what you want when running 26.2 miles. There was a couple of good hills late in the race but I think that keeps things interesting . I think I mentioned before that I joined the 4 hour pacer group and our leader was doing great and keeping a great pace then all of a sudden he was done. I think it was around mile 17 he just stopped and luckily someone else picked it up but for a minute I felt like the people in the Forrest Gump movie when Forrest stops running and everyone else just stops..Funny but true
I wore my pack during this race and I really like wearing a pack for long runs. I am not very good at running and stopping at the water stations and starting up again . I don't feel really hydrated . The pack makes it so I drink water when ever I am thirty and Its my GU brew and I feel like I stay hydrated . I get really bad headaches if I run for a long time with out hydration. I felt strong the entire time I also met a few people along the way. I was happy to finish but I did feel like I could have kept going just not at the pace I was running at. My time was

I was happy with race and happy with my time. I would loved to be under 4 hours but 2 minutes over is fine with me. I thought about going to the bathroom while I was running but then I thought about making the time up and I said just hold it so I did. I did have to stop to tie my shoes twice because I tied them to tight. I tie my shoes about 10 times every race .. not good.
I am running Seattle in about two weeks. I would love to run a 3:59 . I had a great time and highly recommend the Rock and Roll marathon experience to anyone. Yes there are lots of people but that just makes it more fun. See you soon and Happy Running.

Rock and Roll marathon Experience

 The Rock and Roll is always a magical experience at least for me. They put on such a huge production that you can't help but be excited about running. This years some unexpected friends joined us at my house so the celebrating and anticipation started early. When this happens it means I will arrive early.. and that never happens. I ran with a the four hour pacer this year and I definitely think it helped keep me my 4 hour estimated and much wanted finishing time. Our pacer had some technical difficulties along the way so I ended up running behind some guy who decided he to could be the 4 hour pacer. The temperature was perfect and it didn't start getting warm until I was almost done. I do think it was humid. 

This is how I feel about running. Even after 3 hours. I just love it. I did hurt during my run. Pretty much everything hurt at one point or another. My feet my toes my calves my butt my back my arms got tired my shoulders from not relaxing  them and my arms from swinging them the wrong direction. Something always hurts the it goes away just in time for something else to hurt. I made up lots of stories in my head this year. I thought about my kids and how lucky I am to have them. I prayed and I feel so crazy grateful that I can run. I didn't do as much people watching as other years. I didn't wear my watch so I was trying to stay a steady pace.

I ran under this very cool Brooks display and fallowing the display was a bunch of people outside there houses with hoses and watermelon and beer. Nice hu..
I will continue my story tomorrow because My little baby is teething so I did not get much sleep last night..