The Countdown Begins

As always, a lot has happened! Mostly good, but one little bad thing. But I'll get to that. So you know I have been extremely busy for a while now and have been quite stressed. Chasen has said over and over "You need a vacation." The problem is that as much as I like the idea of getting away from it all, the wife and mama in me doesn't like the idea of going to experience something new, exciting or beautiful without my boys. (I know... I'm surprised, too.) But then the perfect opportunity arose: Team Mojo Loco! I will be flying to Florida in December for this awesome relay race experience with so many awesome runners: Maddy, Steve Runner, Zen Runner, Marathon Chris, Ed Marathon, Samantha UF, Crazy Runner, Chris Russell, Nik & Dan and Jus' Norman.

I am pumped! This will be 9 weeks after I run the Chicago Marathon.

Speaking of Chicago... guess what. I am going to have a running partner! It is... drumroll please... MADDY! We knew we were both running and we were very excited to finally get to meet in person at the expo. I figured that'd be it as Maddy is quite a bit faster than me. But a few weeks ago she asked my goal pace, etc. and then asked if I'd like a running partner. Well, of course! With her at my side, I believe I will be pushed a bit (much needed) and I believe I can run MUCH faster than I have in training. That, plus at this point the projected high for the day is 55 degrees. Yessssss! I am very, very excited.

On Thursday night I only managed to get about 3 hours of sleep. Ouch. That really stank considering I had a continuing education class all day Friday. I managed to hold it together and stay awake. On the way home as I was stopped at a stop light, a woman decided to try to drive in front of me from beside me. Here's what happened:

Ruh-roh! My first accident in 11 years!

I am 100% fine and Isaac was not with me. Still, though, now I have to deal with insurance and a body shop. Ick.

Since I had so little sleep, I decided to postpone my FINAL pre-marathon longish run from Saturday until Sunday. I can run on little sleep if need be, but there's just no need to do so 2 nights in a row. So I caught up on some sleep on Friday night. On Saturday night I got all ready for Sunday morning.

Oh happy day - one more time to wake in the wee hours.

I set my alarm for 2:30 AM. [Shut it... it's just necessary as I needed to be home no later than 8 AM.] I was to do 14 mile repeats (yes, 14, thanks Galloway) and walk 5 minutes in between. As I walked out my back door I just thought "This is getting really, really old. Thank heavens this is the last time." I still use the 2:1 method, which means I have to really hustle when I am running the 2-minute portions. They looked like this: 12:04, 12:05, 12:04, 12:07, 12:10, 11:59 (downhill!), 12:07, 13:06, 12:28, 12:22, 13:13, fatigue. I walked the rest of the way. Oh well - it has been a difficult 21 weeks of Galloway.

As is my usual routine, an ice bath followed. Pure heaven! After church, a very long nap ensued. Also heaven!

Here my my two best guys after naptime. Aren't they cute?

Look at that happy 19-month-old!

So Chasen is training for the St. Jude Half, right? Well tonight he abandoned Teddy Tready and hit the neighborhood and ran - get this! - 8 miles! I am so proud of him. That is something he has not done in about 10 years. Go Chasen go! I will be the best cheering section Memphis has ever seen come December 4th. Par-tay!