Somewhere in the Sun

The Home Stretch

2013-05-19T09:33:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, 38 Weeks

At this point, I'm just waiting for this baby. We are ready. I mean READY, there is nothing left to do to get ready for it. Yesterday was the wedding of one of my college roommates. Sadly, it was in Philadelphia, so at this point, I could not go. This was so sad for me and I hemmed and hawed about it from the moment that I found out that I was pregnant. In the end, last week's doctors appointment showed that things are getting started with my body, so traveling 2 1/2 hours each way in a car wasn't the best idea. I was still really sad, though.

So, that's why I have champagne in that picture. It happens to be Ariel Brut Cruvee, which is by far my favorite non-alcoholic beverage for my pregnancy!

I've started walking again, and I've been trying to get on the treadmill for 30 minutes at least every other day. This resulted in some leg pain, which has less to do with my pregnancy and more to do with the fact that I haven't had my feet in supportive shoes in months. I made it up to a whopping 1.2 miles at 2.5 miles per hour! Woo! I'm a long way from the half marathon I ran at 7 weeks, or honestly even the 5K that I ran at 16 weeks.

And so, we wait and wait and wait. That's all that's going on now... when will the baby come? Who knows! (Well, sometime before June 11).

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The Grey Areas of For-Profit

2013-05-14T07:00:00.000-04:00

Last week, I published a post about For Profit vs Non-Profit races. In it, I mentioned the Nike Women's Half Marathon, which made its debut in Washington, DC last month. Is this a for profit race or a non-profit race? It does, after all, team up with Team in Training in order to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Here's my thought on this. I would say that, yes, the Nike Women's Half is a for profit race. Nike is putting on the race to make a profit. If you look at the fine print of the website for the event, you won't find anywhere that states that race proceeds are going to any type of cause. Races are expensive, but I find it hard to believe that a race with an entry fee as competitive as the Rock & Roll USA race (meaning, it's really high) is not turning a profit. Let's look at a few races that all take place in Washington, DC with very similar courses:

Nike Women's Half DC: $160-185
Rock & Roll USA Half marathon: $85-120
Marine Corps Marathon: $92 (2012 price, I had trouble finding the 2013 price)

OUCH.

The Marine Corps Marathon is not only 26.2 instead of 13.1, but it also has a goal of breaking even and does not turn a profit. I believe it also does not raise money for a specific cause, but supports TNT and other organizations to raise money just like the Nike Women's Half, except it charges half the cost and is twice the distance. You can't tell me that Nike Women's Half is not turning a profit, and a big one. And, if they are giving any of those race entry fees to charity, why doesn't it say so on their website. The 26.2 with Donna Marathon does give race proceeds to charity, and says so in big red letters on the front page of their website.

But, none of this is a black and white issue. Take the New York City Marathon, for example. It started without a doubt being a non-profit race. New York Road Runners may even have lost money on that first NYC Marathon. Now, though, it has big corporate sponsorship and I'm pretty sure NYRR turns a profit on the race, making it seem like a profit race... But, the NYRRs are a non-profit. So, it's a non-profit race. But, the CEO of the NYRRs makes a six-figure salary. So, profit?

How about the Baltimore Marathon? It's put on by Corrigan Sports Enterprises, which also runs the Frederick Running Festival, the Baltimore 10 Miler, the Preakness 5K and a bunch of other races and events. This is not a non-profit company. So, I would say it goes into that same bucket as "for profit." Does that even matter in this case? After all, the Baltimore Marathon is such a big race and there is not NYRR equivalent in Baltimore to put on a race of that size. Without Corrigan Sports, Baltimore would not have a marathon, and no one wants that.

Here's what I think the bottom line is. If you want to race with a good conscience, then there are some questions you should ask about the race you're signing up for. It's not even a matter of whether or not the race is for profit or not, it's about what you are getting for your race entry fee and how that race organizer is handling themselves. Did the participants of the Nike Womens Half get their $185 out of the race ($14 per mile)? I don't know, I wasn't there, but that's a really expensive race.

What exactly are you getting for that race entry fee, and is it important to you? Do you need bands on the course? Do they need to be bands that are paid with your fee or are volunteer bands like high school bands ok? Are you going to be disappointed if you run past and the band is taking a break (as is what always happens to me at Rock & Roll Races)? Do you care that the race offers a giant medal or some sort of other bling? Is the bling worth the cost? How many water stops are on the course? Are they providing amenities like bag check, a big expo, etc, and do you need that? What food will be offered at the finish line? What about port-o-potties? Will any of your race entry fees be given to charity? Who is profiting off of your race entry fees?

Of course, as I write this, I remember back to the Hot Chocolate 15K, where the chocolate was worth the race entry fee, if it had been as described, but it wasn't. Or, the fact that they ran out of water and didn't have enough volunteers on the course. Or, the Rock & Roll USA Half that ran out of shirts well before the expo finished. Or, many other races that I mentioned in my last post that did not exceed expectations. So, I guess there's another question - are you ok with surrendering more than $100 to run a race when the corporation putting on the race may or may not come through with the things you want and need?

And there's my biggest question:

Is the race company actively pushing local races out of the area?

Just more food for thought.

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For Profit Races: Good or Bad?

2013-05-08T14:33:00.002-04:00

The Color Run is the latest trendy for-profit race. A couple of months ago, a friend asked me (and a bunch of other people) if I wanted to run it, and of course, since I'll be almost 38 weeks pregnant on Saturday when folks are running it, it's not really in the cards for me. But, when I gave it some thought, I don't think I would run it anyway. Why? I've simply had it with for-profit races.

Everywhere you look these days, there are companies sprouting up with a new shtick to get runners to fork over cash to run in some sort of themed race. Some examples:

The (already mentioned) Color Run is a 5K where people throw colored powder at you during the race. You wear a white shirt and come out at the end looking all colorful. Besides the for-profit issues that I have with this one, I also wonder about breathing in that powder, and how much it stains if you don't get it all off of your skin before you get into your car. Cost: $50.
The Warrior Dash is an obstacle course the people run through and get all muddy and stuff. Cost: $70-90.
Tough Mudder is just like the Warrior Dash, only longer and more difficult. Cost: $85-180.
Run for your Lives is like a normal race, but you're apparently getting chased by zombies.
The Hot Chocolate 15K is a race where you get chocolate at the end.

And there are more and more and more and more... the Zooma races, the Rock & Roll race series, the recent Nike Women's Half Marathon... they're all for profit.

So, why have I "had it" with these races? My major concern is that they are squeezing out the other, traditional non-profit races. I know there is a little bit of an attitude of "the more races, the better!" in the world of running, but that's not really true. In order to have a race, organizers have to close the roads of a city. They have to use resources, such as EMTs and police. They have to find volunteers. And, cities are only willing to do this so many times for so many races. In the end, the profit races tend to win out over the non-profits, because the non-profits don't have the cash behind them to win their case.

It's already happening. In Raleigh, NC, the RunRaleigh Half Marathon and 5K, a non-profit race raising $30,000 for charity every year, has been bumped in order to allow Raleigh to host a Rock & Roll Half Marathon in 2014.

Raleigh police have already had 82 applications for road races scheduled this year, nearly double the runs held a few years ago. Most race organizers want the city’s most picturesque route: generally a lap around downtown coupled with a trek out Hillsborough Street. And they want a weekend when other races aren’t competing for runners. But as the number of races grows, neighbors along the most popular routes are getting fed up with roadblocks that can last all morning.

EXACTLY. So, 2013 was likely the last year for the RunRaleigh Half Marathon. Those $30,000 in charity dollars? Gone. Rock & Roll runs for profit - you're paying that hefty registration fee to line someone's pocket.

Last year, one of my favorite races, The Annapolis Ten Mile Run, was forced to change its course due to too many for profit races coming into town and applying to run similar courses. The Annapolis Striders, who organize the race, wrote:

As noted, we are no longer "the only race in town." It is unfortunate that a number of for-profit events have caused this situation. The Striders, in sharp contrast, are an all volunteer, non-profit which has provided hundreds of thousands of dollars to local charities over the years.

The thing is, for profit races aren't that great. I've already expressed my frustration with Rock and Roll races, and I mentioned how disappointed I was with the Hot Chocolate 15K. Others have had similar issues - in 2011, the Rock & Roll Las Vegas Marathon had huge problems with lack of water and illness. In 2012, the Maryland Tough Mudder was forced to cancel their second day due to the fact that poor planning made it impossible for people to park or even get to the race. The most shocking? This year's Tough Mudder resulted in a death where EMTs did not react very fast to the fact that someone had slipped below the water and did not come back up.

My experience with for-profit races is that they come into town, totally unfamiliar with the area, and set up a race with 10 to 20 thousand participants in the first year. They do everything to maximize profit, which leads to crowded courses, lack of water stops, difficulty with traffic and parking, and frankly dangerous situations for runners. Do you really trust these companies to put on a quality event and keep you safe? I no longer do - and even if I did, it is coming at the detriment to good old fashioned non-profit races. You know, the races we've all come to love.

Is this really how we want racing to go?

What about Disney, though? I have to address this because I'm a fan of Disney races, as many know. Yes, Disney races are generally for-profit. They do not, however, have the same issues as other for profit races in that they are mostly (yes, I know that they have problems too) well run, they happen in an area where race organizers are familiar, and they do not compete with non-profit races for resources or street closures. If Competitor wants to buy a 44-square mile private area to host Rock & Roll races, I think that's a great solution!

I would LOVE to hear more examples of for-profit races having issues because they have either not prepared properly, or because they tried to include far too many participants. If you've run one of these, please let me know in the comments!

Update: Jen commented on Facebook two things: 1) Pittsburgh booted Competitor out of their Rock & Roll event planned for August, due to possibility of heat (and of course Competitor had already taken a bunch of registration fees even before the permits were finalized!). And 2) There's a new shtick in town - Running with the Bulls. Seriously? That's not an Onion article?

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Boston...

2013-05-01T15:32:00.002-04:00

I have been back and forth about posting about Boston. In the end, I felt like I couldn't continue to ignore it on my blog. Now, it's been 3 weeks and anything that could have been said has been said, and by people who are better at saying it than I am. It's hard to write about it and NOT try to connect it back to myself, which is wrong because it's not about me at all. I could say "I could have been there" or "that could have been my family" or "my friends" or whatever, but honestly, if we're talking specifically Boston, I doubt I'll ever go there for the marathon unless by some miracle I qualify for it, which I won't. So, it really couldn't have been me or my family. At another race? At Marine Corps, or New York, or any of the other high profile races I've run? Yeah, then it could have been me, I guess.

I had even been ignoring Boston this year, just like I'm ignoring most spring races because I can't run them and it makes me feel sorry for myself. I've even hidden people from my Facebook newsfeed who post too many running things for me to handle right now. So, I wasn't really in the Boston mindset.

I don't know, I guess I just feel sad and numb about the whole thing, especially because in the end it wasn't even about running. So pointless, so senseless. A terrible thing to have tarnished our sport.

Run on, Boston runners. I doubt I'll ever be there with you, but I stand with you to keep running once I can, and to not let this tragedy spoil the races that I love.

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35 Weeks

2013-04-23T15:05:00.000-04:00

Last week, 34 weeks

I hesitated to post this picture because you can clearly see how crazy swollen my legs and ankles are. But, it was a nice day and I was wearing a skirt and so I wasn't wearing my support hose that keep my swelling under control.

So, as you can see, I'm getting pretty big, pretty uncomfortable, and we're coming down to the wire on this baby thing. My amount of exercise remains shamefully the same, but we've still been busy getting the nursery together. This past weekend was my baby shower (maybe some photos later). My sister and niece did an incredible job getting the shower together and it was really a lot of fun.

My co-workers also threw me a shower last week (the day the photo was taken, in fact), and it was also very awesome.

Our nursery is looking so nice! I am excited to share what it looks like, but we're not quite ready to show photos.

There is very little else going on. This weekend, we are taking our very last childbirth class - which has become truly invaluable. I would recommend it to everyone. We've also learned that we're not the only delinquents in the class. I will admit that it has freaked me out that one couple in the class quit early because they had their baby. Scary!

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2013 Tentative Race Schedule

2013-04-15T10:44:00.002-04:00

I just can't stand it. I was fine with all of the not running that I am doing when it was 20 degrees outside, but now that it's gotten nice and warm out, I feel like I need to start looking ahead. I have no idea if any of this is feasible, but here is what I'm thinking...

September 28 - St George's Dragon Run 5K
October 12 - Baltimore 5K
November 24 - Cold Turkey 10K
December 14 - Celtic Solstice 5 Miler
OR December 15 - Mount Dora 5K (as we don't know yet if we will be in Florida the weekend of the Celtic Solstice. We have been for the last 2 years)

... with the hope of gearing up for a half marathon in the spring of 2014. Most likely, this will be the Island to Island Half Marathon in Ocean City, Maryland in April, 2014. I know that I could be reaching here, but Todd and I remain pretty committed to keeping our running up after the baby is born. I doubt that I will be able to do any other exercise (swimming is definitely out, as I intend to cancel my gym membership in May or June).

At least Jeff Galloway's 5K training plan starts out super slow! I need that for sure.

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Sea Things #37: Mantis Shrimp

2013-04-10T14:14:00.001-04:00

Mantis Shrimp
Todd Krebs, Above and Below Photo

I haven't done a Sea Things in a really long time, but since The Oatmeal posted this spectacular cartoon depicting one of our favorite creatures, the Mantis Shrimp, I thought I would elaborate.

First of all, if you want to know about a beautiful creature that is also terrifying, look no further than this one. I won't rehash what The Oatmeal already said (see the link above), but I will add a couple of things.

The "death sticks" that The Oatmeal refers to are either spears or hammers. So, there are spearers, who use spears at the front of their face to stab prey. There are also smashers, who smash their prey with tremendous force. It's crazy. No, I have never seen a Mantis Shrimp do this in real life, although I have seen Mantis Shrimp on more than one occasion.

The Mantis Shrimp depicted by The Oatmeal is a Peacock Mantis Shrimp, found in the Indo-Pacific, and is the one that we observed in Indonesia on several occasions. We would see one, and then we'd gesture to each other something to the effect of "get away from that." Todd was especially cautious because a Mantis Shrimp can easily break dome on his camera housing, causing thousands of dollars in damage and rendering his camera useless for the rest of the trip.

We also saw a HUGE Mantis Shrimp during a safety stop in Bali. This guy was seriously the size of my arm from my elbow to wrist, if not bigger. Usually Mantis Shrimps are down in holes, only poking their faces out here and there, but this guy was out and about, looking all menacing because he knew he was a killer and dangerous.

There are also Mantis Shrimps in the Caribbean, specifically the Ciliated Mantis Shrimp. These tend to be smaller and not as pretty as the ones in the Pacific (which is generally true of all Caribbean creatures, and is why divers travel to the Indo-Pacific like it's Mecca). I don't mind getting close to Caribbean Mantis Shrimps, although they are still pretty brave. I've been known to coax them out of their holes by taunting them with my metal pointer that I carry with me on dives. You can hear them snapping at the metal pretty easily underwater. I would never do this with an Indo-Pacific Mantis, who would probably go on a killing spree as a result.

You also find Snapping Shrimp in the Caribbean, which are pretty tiny relative to the Mantis, but are no less fierce. I've been "snapped" by them before. They basic are found in holes (often near cleaning stations, which is what gets me into trouble), and will use their little claws to SNAP at you if you get your finger in there. You can hear this underwater, too, and it hurts, trust me. They are not friendly, and I have never successfully gotten one out of its hole.

Side Note: Todd and I often play the game of "which are you more afraid of?" and then name two fish species. Are you more afraid of a Great White Shark or a Blue Ring Octopus? Are you more afraid of an Irukandji Jellyfish or a Mantis Shrimp? Of the fish I've actually seen, (I've never seen a Blue Ring, Irukandji or Great White, for example), the most frightening is not the Mantis Shrimp, but the Titan Triggerfish. I'm not kidding, a Titan Triggerfish will seriously mess you up. Maybe The Oatmeal should learn about them. They were nesting in Indonesia and I was terrified of them. Not so much the Mantis, although I did avoid them.

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April Fools...

2013-04-01T16:34:00.000-04:00

Oh, all of those years where I posted an "I'm pregnant!" April Fools day prank on my blog and I wasn't pregnant (and some people fell for it every year).

I am pregnant, what do I post about this year?

I'll just post the April Fools joke that really got me this year:
Precious Island, Turks and Caicos

I absolutely love the magazine Undercurrent, which is an unbiased newsletter style magazine published every month for scuba divers about diving destinations, etc. The reviewers are required to pay their own way to their destinations and the magazine does not take advertisements. They write about dive accidents and safety, resort and destination reviews, information about new gear, and ecology stuff. I look forward to my issue every month (which I get via email in PDF form, yay for no trash!).

Anyway, today they sent out a special bulletin to subscribers about a new dive destination in Turks & Caicos that is on a private island. Thatched roofed bures (very rare)! Fresh mango juice and coffee, along with a weather report delivered to your bure door every morning! Valet Diving (they set up your equipment for you, something a lot of divers hate but I prefer)! Goliath Groupers! Ocean Sunfish! I was not catching on that this was too good to be true, and I was also skimming a little because I wanted to see pictures and the price, so I missed a lot of the REALLY over the top stuff that would have given it away as a hoax.

I got to the price - $1400 per person for eight days/seven nights including meals and diving... Uh, that price is too low to even understand (a liveaboard, for example, that includes diving and food and less fancy accommodations than stated in the article would run $3000 per person minimum). Huh? I googled. Nothing about this place.

Then I read the disclaimer at the bottom.

Oh, Undercurrent. You got me. I was already feeling annoyed that I can't possibly go to a private island for another couple of years at least.

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Birthing Classes and More

2013-03-26T13:18:00.003-04:00

A week ago, at 30 weeks (this was
actually taken in the baby's room!)

I need to do an update!! I'm at 31 weeks now, and I've been trying really hard to get in the pool because the baby is still breech and I think that will help to turn him. Last week, we had an ultrasound where we saw he is breech, and that his head is a little large, making him a little bit less likely to turn. It's still early, but I would very much like a shot at a vaginal delivery, so I would very much like for him to turn.

I've been having a lot of pain in my pelvis, which sucks and makes walking difficult and painful at times. I'm still trying to get on the treadmill when I can, but it is hard. Thankfully, our basement project will be over really soon - Friday the contractor will be totally done! We'll be able to set the gym back up again and I will have a treadmill in the house that I can use. I can't wait to post pictures - the gym is going to be awesome, basically the home gym I've always wanted.

Tonight, I am teaching a snorkel class, which should be interesting. I no longer fit in my wetsuit (trying it on last night was a comic exercise), but one isn't really needed for this. I'm glad to be doing something scuba-like, at least.

We also started childbirth classes, which are interesting. We are going to classes that are basically very very crunchy-granola, and I sometimes feel like Todd and I are the delinquents in the class. It's not like this, but I think of this every time we go:

The biggest problem is that we have SO MUCH going on that we work really really hard all weekend, and then end up falling asleep at some point during the class, and not during the relaxation time when you're supposed to or at least "allowed" to. Todd sits with his eyes all bloodshot, trying not to nod off, I try really hard to focus on my posture. Last week, I read the wrong chapter before class.

There's always a video that we watch that shows somebody giving birth every week, and I've learned that no one else in the class regresses to the 5th grade like we do when we watch them, apparently. We go out to dinner afterwards and we discuss the class and the video, like, "boobies! and lady parts! and gore!" The first week, we watched a woman doing a water birth, where she and her spouse were both in the tub totally naked. You could see the head coming out and I was looking around at everyone else like "Hello? Does anyone else think this feels too deeply personal to be filming and showing to a bunch of strangers?" Apparently not. Todd's comment? "That was a really nice tub. I really liked what they did with the tile." I'm telling you - delinquents, both of us.

The best part is that I have totally divided the phases of labor into a marathon. Early Labor? Miles 1-13. Active Labor? Miles 13-20. Transition? Miles 20-25. Pushing? Miles 25-26.2. Delivery of the placenta? Negotiating the post-finish area. See? I can do this. This week, we were going over the phases of labor and the instructor said "Active labor is a little harder than early labor, like when you get into the second mile of a run..." I was thinking "Lady, we can run farther than that."

So, there you have it. I do have a running-related post coming up, if I could ever finish it.

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Third Trimester Update

2013-02-28T21:52:00.001-05:00

This is me at work
at 27 weeks

On Tuesday, I reached my Third Trimester! Time is flying by on this pregnancy, that is for sure. So, I thought I'd give an update on what I've been up to...

How's the Exercising Going?
Nada. Well, not totally nada. But, I haven't really been able to run since about 21 weeks. I finally gave up after an incredibly painful run in early January. No amount of walk breaks helped. I moved on to walking, still only on the treadmill because I don't have winter exercise clothes. I found that I was able to walk at a reasonable clip - 3.8mph - as long as I didn't try to run at all, and I was pleased with that. Six weeks later, and I can do 30 minutes at between 3 and 3.2 mph and that is even a struggle. I went to Ikea on Friday and had to sit in one of their living rooms to rest partway through. Short answer: exercise is a struggle.

Last week, the contractor started working on our basement finishing, and to prepare for this, we completely disassembled our basement home gym - took up the flooring, carried the TV upstairs, piled the treadmill full of stuff and wedged it into a section of basement that will remain unfinished. So, for the next 6 weeks I either have to use the treadmill in my office or make my way to the gym. Just another barrier to working out.

As for swimming - I did have a wonderful swim a couple of weeks ago. I love love loved it. But, I haven't made it back since. Sigh. We've just got so much going on.

Yoga? Well, some furniture that was in our basement that had to be moved out for the finishing project has moved up into my yoga space, making it (you guessed it!) that much harder for me to practice yoga. I've been trying to at least do kegels.

How are you feeling?
The whole world wants to know this. Do you know how I know? I get asked this question like 30 times a day, by people who see me everyday. I'm not complaining, I think people just want something to talk to me about, but since my answer is always "fine," it gets kind of old. I haven't really experienced nausea or anything since around November, unless I stay up too late. I'm starting to feel sort of uncomfortable at times, mostly at bedtime or on long car rides. I do have some TMI symptoms that I don't feel like talking about. I don't know, I'm used to being pretty quiet with people and I'm not used to so many questions all the time.

Are you having any cravings?
Another question that everyone wants to know! I have cravings normally, as a non-pregnant person. I am not really having cravings to that degree now. I am finding that while at first I totally didn't want sweets (unusual for me), I've been craving sweets little by little more and more the farther into my pregnancy I get. I really go crazy for salad.

Are you having any food aversions?
Broccoli and chicken. I've been eating a crazy amount of red meat as a result. I don't care. Todd made me choke down some broccoli last night, and it sucked, but it's good for the baby. Chicken I've been able to tolerate sometimes, but in general I find it gross right now.

Have you chosen a name?
This is probably the second most popular question. Yes, we've chosen a name, although we're not 100% on the middle name. First name is pretty much set. We are not telling until the baby is born, much to the chagrin of our parents.

Can you feel the baby kicking?
Yes, all the time. And, while I totally think it's awesome and I like feeling it and I'm excited about, it can also be pretty distracting when I'm trying to work. It's like, ok, baby, calm down, I need to focus.

Have you finished the nursery?
OMG, no. This is the funniest thing that people ask. No. Because - to finish the nursery we have to get the office furniture out of there. To do that, we have to finish the basement. To do that, we have to put in an egress window. To do that, we have to actually get a decent contractor. To move things out of the basement, we needed to redo some storage in the laundry room and kitchen to move the stuff out of the basement that was down there. Upon doing that we found that the builder in our house had drilled through a drain pipe in the wall and not ever told anyone... So, it's turned into a money pit-like chain reaction. This whole thing is what is taking up so much of my time right now, and is creating a lot of stress.

That being said, if you're curious, the nursery theme is going to be Finding Nemo, probably not much of a surprise. We are pretty excited. :)

Is it a boy or a girl?
I've announced this already, but in case you missed it, here is the Youtube video where we cut a cake to reveal the sex of the baby. No, we did not know the sex of the baby until then. We had the sex sealed in an envelope, which we gave to the staff of the resort where we were staying. They baked the cake. The video was shot in Little Cayman. We told our family later. There was a lot of confusion about this on Facebook and elsewhere, so hopefully that clears it up.

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Review: Les Miserables

2013-02-22T11:35:00.000-05:00

I finally got to see this movie! I was initially hoping to see it on December 26th, the day after it opened, when I had a day off of work. But, I ended up with a cold and it snowed, so I spent December 26th at home wrapped up like a burrito on the sofa playing World of Warcraft and sleeping. Then, the opportunity just did not happen again until the last week or so (we have been beyond busy).

I have been a Les Miserables fan since middle school, when we took a group trip to the Mechanic Theater in Baltimore to see it. My friends and I were VERY into Les Mis! Each of us would love one of the characters for a while and really relate to them, and then move on to something else. I was so looking forward to the movie, and I wanted to give a character by character review of the movie. There are spoilers, and that is because if you are reading this, I expect that you have either already watched the movie or you have seen the musical on stage before and therefore your experience will not be ruined. If you have never seen the stage show OR the movie, you probably should get a background on it before seeing it in the theater anyway.

Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman, aka Wolverine): Hugh did a splended job playing Jean Valjean. I knew I would tear up during the movie, being pregnant and emotional and all, but instead of sobbing through the whole thing, I did manage to keep it together except for a few parts. One of those times was between "What Have I Done?" and "At the End of the Day", since it's the part that takes the prologue into Act I and has for some reason always been kick ass. Hugh didn't disappoint here. His voice was awesome, his acting was spot on. He deserved his Golden Globe, and I would not be surprised to see him collect an Oscar this weekend. Good for him!

Javert (Russell Crowe, aka Gladiator): Oh, Russell. Why were you cast in this part? You ruined Javert. There were all of these news stories about how you took vocal lessons in order play this part and my question remains - WHY not cast someone who can sing in the first place? Are we really that desperate for a Javert that we HAD to cast a major star in this part? There have been like 30 people who have played Javert on stage over the years, certainly one of them was better than Russell Crowe. I am not a huge Russell Crowe fan in the first place, but I don't disrespect him as an actor. However, he was REALLY focused on the singing - so much so that he forgot to act. So, both his singing AND his acting were bad. Javert's major solo songs - "Stars" and "Javert's Suicide" should have been emotional and moving, but they were cardboard. The words and the notes were there, but Russell just stared into space like he was too focused on hitting the notes to add any sort of emotion to anything. Big disappointment. Norm Lewis would have been my first choice to play Javert, by the way. I tried to find him doing "Javert's Suicide" from the 25th Anniversary tour, and this was the best I could do. Go to 4:30 to see it. And here's Russell Crowe. Ugh, so awful. AWFUL. Also, here's a play by play of other Javerts doing "Stars". You can clearly see that Norm Lewis is FAR superior to everyone else. Ewan Macgregor would have been another good choice if we HAD to go with a Hollywood star. Or, come on, how about Neil Patrick Harris even??

Fantine (Anne Hathaway, aka Princess Mia): Anne Hathaway NAILED IT. She made up for any suckage coming from Russell Crowe. As you may imagine, having been 13 when I was first introduced to Les Mis, my friends and I used to giggle and giggle over "Lovely Ladies," which the song where Fantine starts selling things (a locket, her hair, and finally her body) in order to pay for the care of her daughter. It's sung by prostitutes and has a lot of raunchy lyrics (I smell women, smell them in the air, think I'll drop my anchor in that harbor over there!) .... lots of things for an 8th grader to giggle at. But, WOW, Anne Hathaway took what was a giggle worthy song and added so much pain and desperation and misery that I cried through what I would have laughed at as a kid. She brought Fantine's suffering to the screen like nobody has before and really knocked it out of the park. People go on and on about "I Dreamed a Dream", and that was great also, but "Lovely Ladies" really did it for me. I have trouble deciding if she or Hugh Jackman played the better part overall.

The Thenardiers (Sacha Baron Cohen & Helena Bonham Carter, aka Borat and Bellatrix): First of all, if you have a screen adaptation of a show, it is not going to be successful without HBC. These two were both cast so perfectly, and I knew it when I heard they were cast. I was delighted! The Thenardiers have always been my favorite characters (I know, that's awful). It's unfortunate that some of their songs were shortened or eliminated. I've never loved "Dog Eats Dog," so I didn't miss that one, but I would have liked "Beggars at the Feast" to have stayed around.

Cosette (Amanda Seyfried, aka the oldest daughter from Big Love): Eh. You see, I've always kind of loathed Cosette anyway. I mean, everybody goes out of their way for her through the ENTIRE THING. Fantine, Valjean, Eponine, Marius... and she really doesn't do much of anything except sing in a high pitched voice for a bunch of songs that are syrupy sweet and about teenage love. She's not a bad person, but we really learn very little about her and therefore I feel very little emotion for her at all. Amanda Seyfried was a good choice, sure. But, Cosette (and to some extent Marius) is why Act II has always dragged for me, and why it dragged in the movie. I get it. You're in love. Now, let's hear Eponine sing "On My Own"!

Eponine (Samantha Barks aka Eponine): Samantha played Eponine on stage. So, yeah, they did with her what they should have done with Javert. She did a great job, I liked her as Eponine. She's not my favorite, Lea Salonga is, but Lea Salonga plays Fantine and a million other parts also and happens to be one of my favorite stage actresses ever. She's also too old to play Eponine now, so Samantha Barks is fine.

Marius (Eddie Redmayne, aka Jack from Pillars of the Earth, one of the worst book adaptations ever made): I've never had much love for Marius either. Like Cosette, his sickeningly sweet love songs always wanted to make me barf. You're in love suddenly right when your friends need you? Whatever, dude. Anyway, Eddie did a very nice job, and I had pretty low expectations. So, he exceeded them. He even made me like Marius a little, which is saying a lot. Maybe Marius has some redeeming qualities.

Everyone else (Enjolras, Young Cosette, Gavroche): They were all fine. No complaints, they seemed pretty true to what I would expect.

The Songs: I didn't hate the new song. I know it was only put in there just so it could be nominated for an Oscar, and it was fine. But, I honestly wish the Academy would create a category for best Adapted song so that musicals could stop doing that. It's tiring and it meant other songs got removed! "Do You Hear the People Sing" was spot on and PERFECT. AWESOME. "One Day More" is probably my very favorite song, and I liked it, but it was one of the songs that Russell Crowe ruined, and I was in the bathroom for the very beginning (I'm pregnant).

Overall: I thought it was good. I seriously wish Russell Crowe hadn't been cast, as you can tell, but the excellent singing and acting from everyone else made up for it. It was FAR better than the Phantom of the Opera movie a few years ago, and I still give it a solid "see it in the theater" rating.

My Movie Rating scale:

See it in the theater <-- les="" li="" miserables="">
Wait for the DVD
Wait for it to come out on HBO
Wait for it to come out on network TV with commercials and heavy editing
Don't watch it at all. Ever.

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Little Cayman 2013

2013-02-10T09:40:00.000-05:00

On the pier at Sunset

... and I reveal the sex of the baby in this post, so keep on reading!

Our friends Ellen and Matt typically go to Little Cayman every November, and in 2012 we thought about taking a trip down to meet up with them in November. I called and found out that Ellen and Matt had actually decided to come down in January, and the dates of their trip happened to coincide with the Disney Marathon. So, that wasn't going to work. In the end, Todd got a new job in October and he really couldn't take off of work anyway, so we ended up not going anywhere.

21 weeks pregnant here

Then, I got pregnant.

At first, I thought I would still run a piece of the marathon - the first 8 miles, which would allow me to run from Epcot to the Magic Kingdom, up Main Street and then allow me to exit the course right in front of the Polynesian Resort, where Todd and I could get some breakfast and take the monorail to get back to our hotel. I am glad that we didn't go through with this plan because by the time marathon week came, I was struggling to get 3-4 miles in and Disney would have been a disappointment. Instead, sometime in November, I asked Todd if he would rather meet Ellen & Matt in Little Cayman, and then we could call the trip our "Babymoon."* We invited our friend Bill & Gerry to join us, and booked our trip to coincide with Matt & Ellen's. But, we didn't tell Matt & Ellen that we were joining them and planned to surprise them.

Another surprise? We'd had our anatomy ultrasound on the Monday before we left on the trip. We had the ultrasound tech put the sex of the baby into an envelope and brought it with us on the trip. The plan was to give the envelope to the staff, and then they would bake us a cake with either a blue or pink filling. We would cut the cake to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl.

A quick side note - during the ultrasound, I felt like I saw boy parts and then I thought I saw girl parts (fyi, you DO actually see girl parts, it's not like you see a penis or nothing). So, I wasn't really sure what I saw. Todd felt like he saw girl parts and did NOT see boy parts. So, he INSISTED that it was a girl. He was convinced. He convinced me, too, so on the flights down to Little Cayman, we discussed girl names and girl nursery ideas (in the end, our nursery will be the same regardless of the sex of the baby).

With the cake

We arrived in Little Cayman in the evening of January 10. I jumped out of the car and ran around to the bar, where I knew Matt would be. He was surprised! We went over and knocked on their room door, and Ellen answered and she was surprised, too! It was too fun. Good times.

Since I am pregnant, I cannot scuba dive, so it was totally sad for me to go out to the boat and watch it pull away without me. I had thought that I would be able to go out on the boat with everyone, but our dive master told me no - the wind was sustained at nearly 20mph and the water was just too rough for me to be out on the boat. We were about to find out how rough it was.

The boat pulled away, I got into the hammock, and I was surprised a few minutes later when the boat arrived back at the dock. Going through the cut out of the lagoon, the boat had hit a series of a couple of very very large waves. It went up in the air and slammed back down, and Ellen had fallen onto her back. They had turned around and brought her back, and she ended up going to the medical clinic on the island and then spent the rest of the day in her room.

I ended up spending the day, and all of my days, in the hammock with some breaks for snacking, yoga, and little dips in the pool (which was freezing cold). I got lots of reading, napping and relaxation in while Todd was exploring Bloody Bay Wall with Bill.

Bill and Todd on the reef, be sure to check out
the rest of Todd's underwater photos at Red Bubble!

Friday night, Ellen was still in a lot of pain and couldn't make it to dinner. We (me, Todd, Bill and Gerry) visited her in her room. We decided to put off our gender cake reveal until Saturday in the hopes that Ellen and Matt could be there.

Saturday, though, Ellen was no better and they decided to head to Grand Cayman to get some more tests done (you cannot even get an X-ray on Little Cayman). Divers Alert Network (DAN) had her airlifted off of the island, and Gerry and I (Gerry wasn't diving either since she had a cold) spent the morning with Ellen at the medical clinic and at the airport to keep her company, since she was pretty nervous. HUGE shout out to DAN, by the way. I do NOT understand people who dive without DAN coverage. By Sunday, we knew that Ellen had a fractured vertebrae, and she ended up getting airlifted all the way back to Indianapolis. She's currently recovering from surgery that she had on January 17.

Gerry & Bill

So, Saturday evening we had our baby cake cutting party with Bill, Gerry and the staff and other guests of the resort. This was a special thing for us to do there, since we got married there in 2009. We weren't sure how this whole cake thing would go, but as it turned out, it was so special and wonderful! I am so happy that we did it this way - it was SO much better than finding out in the doctors office. Gerry took a video, so here you can see us doing the cake cutting... (and a special thanks to my co-worker, Jared, who was the one to tell me that this was even a thing that couples are doing now)

(Yep, I am making you watch the video to find out the sex of the baby)

Since I was unable to dive and pretty sad about it, the resort arranged to take the pontoon boat out for snorkeling. Seth Chwast, who is an autistic artist, was staying at the resort as well, and he was going out snorkeling every day, so it meant there were plenty of us out on the boat to snorkel. I did fine, although snorkeling did make me pretty tired (we were staying out for about 60-90 minutes at a time). I got to see lot of juvenile fish, plus an octopus and a spotted eagle ray.

Baby's first snorkel

One day, Todd and I went up to Point of Sand, which is a lovely beach on the island that we'd only visited once before. We were the only people there, so it was nice to snorkel and have some quiet time, plus we picked up a bag of trash while we were there. At Point of Sand, I got to see a nurse shark. I never did get to see a turtle, though, so this was my very first trip to Little Cayman where I did not see a sea turtle. :(

We ended up having a wonderful trip, even though it was clouded by the fact that our friends whom we'd gone down to surprise had barely gotten onto the island before having to leave. But, I am happy to report that Ellen is recovering nicely and she is expected to make it back to Little Cayman in July (although we will not, since we'll have a newborn).

* I've read that there are two meanings for the word babymoon, one is when you go on one last "couple" trip before the baby is born, which is how I use it, and one that means the time period right after the baby is born, which is the meaning that I feel kind of "meh" about.

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But, I Thought You Didn't Want Kids!

2013-01-30T07:00:00.000-05:00

When my blog was in its infancy, I wrote a few posts about how I did not want children. These days, I tend to shy away from blogging about such personal subjects, but I wanted to talk about this one. It's not that I have to explain myself, it's that I want to.

It was 2005 and I was 27. I had converted from thinking that marriage means children, to thinking that marriage means marriage, and children come sometimes, if you want them. Honestly, I had gotten married young - I was 22 when I said "I do" to my ex-husband, and I'd had a plan to go off of birth control and start "seeing what happened" in that area by age 26. However, at 25, a year short of that goal, I started to freak out. I was not ready. My husband wasn't ready. And as a couple, we certainly were not ready. The problem was, I didn't think we'd ever be ready.

As I often do with life choices big and small, I turned to Google to see what advice others had about this, and I discovered a whole community of people out there who don't believe that children are necessary to live a complete life. I started considering the other option - not having children at all - and I liked it. I liked it so much, that instead of just going about living my life and not discussing my childfree status with everyone, I mentioned it to people. I discussed my dilemma and my eventual decision. I was happy with my choice.

The problem was, other people weren't happy with my choice. My family tried to talk me into having kids. My friends desperately tried to understand, and some became down right hostile. On my blog, I listed a lot of reasons why I didn't want to have children, and they were pretty typical of the childfree - I wanted to be able to travel, I wanted to keep working without the stress of daycare, I was concerned about money, I was afraid I would not be a good parent, and I was afraid I would have kids and then regret it and feel resentful towards them. Reaction was mixed.

The real, single biggest reason I didn't want kids in 2005? My marriage was not stable enough to bring a child into. I am a child of divorce, and I will not divorce a man with whom I have a child, and in 2005, I was not willing to commit to my ex-husband for life anymore. We had discussed having children, of course, and our conversations revolved around the other reasons I mentioned. I don't think we ever really told each other "well, our marriage won't survive kids," but I think we both felt that way. It was all a huge strain - the stress and pressure of being in a not-so-great marriage, combined with the stress and pressure of friends, family and strangers to take that not-so-great marriage to the next level. Obviously, we did the right thing, because our marriage ended in 2006. Like magic, those voices trying so hard to get me to have kids were silenced.

So, now what? It's 2013, I'm 3 1/2 years into another marriage, and I'm almost 6 months pregnant. Clearly, my mind has changed. Eight years have passed since my initial foray into childfree land, and in that time, I have totally redecorated my life. My marriage is happy and strong, and I cannot see myself with anyone else other than Todd, ever. I have eight additional years of travel under my belt, and in that time I've traveled from London to Indonesia to Belize to basically the entire Caribbean, and I feel like I'm ready to start doing that travel with a third person along (yes, I insist that I can travel with a child. Maybe not the same travel we've been doing, but this baby already has a trip planned). I am, for the first time in my career, working at a job where I feel I will be staying for a while, and where I have the flexibility to work and be a mom. I feel financially stable, and I feel old enough and mature enough to take on raising a human. I am in a good place, and I was in such a bad place in 2005, that I couldn't possibly see myself ever getting here.

So, a word of advice for those people who feel concerned or insulted that someone has made the choice to be childfree. Having children is a big deal and not having them is a valid choice. What's more, those people who have chosen to skip child rearing may have some pretty wonderful reasons to have done so, but they may not be sharing all of those reasons with you. Finally, do not, ever, insist that they will change their minds. While I did, and many people do, it's still a rage inducing stance to take. I could have decided to stay with my ex, and if I had done that, I can say with certainty that I would not be pregnant now, or even considering it. Even after I got married to Todd, we still were uncertain if we wanted children. Sure, our marriage was strong, but we still needed to decide if children were what we wanted. And yes, the "when are you having kids" questions started up right away as soon as we said our vows, especially from those who didn't know me during my first marriage.

Just remember, things are not always what they seem.

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My Fast is Your Slow

2013-01-28T14:32:00.002-05:00

I would like to comment on a little debate that went on over at Athlinks.com a couple of months ago. I haven't had the time to really return to it until now, but I think it's a really interesting topic.

On November 18, Athlinks sent out this message:

The past four years have seen an alarming decline in U.S. racing performances in distances across the board. 5K times are off by +1:17, that's a 4% decline! Average Ironman times have increased by +21:54, a nearly 3% decline. I ask you - How could we let this happen to this, the Swiftest of Nations?

I urge you to join us along with your fellow American road racers, trail runners, triathletes, cyclists, and swimmers in making a new commitment to restoring the speed to your own community.

The email included a table showing the average race finishing times in 2009 and the average race finishing times in 2012. A little bit of a debate erupted on Facebook, with many people pointing out the obvious: Race times have probably decreased because more people are participating, and those who are new the the sport are quite obviously slower. Plus, there has been an uptick in people joining up simply to have fun and participate, without any sort of time goal.

The Athlinks folks have a great rebuttal to this - why are you using Athlinks, a site which tracks your PRs and race times, if you don't care about your race times? I will answer this: Because there is a difference between "not caring" about speed and not wanting to know what your time was.

What bothers me more than anything about this whole debate is that there is an assumption made by the "fasts" - those that run traditionally fast racing times - that I can't stand. I consider you to be "traditionally fast" if you have a hope of qualifying for Boston someday, if you don't really have to worry about course time limits on any race that you choose to run, or really if you would run a marathon with proper training and reasonable race conditions and see yourself finishing in 4:30 or better (which is above the average in the Athlinks email). The assumption that is frequently made is that if you are slow, below average, worrying about course time limits, etc, then you must not care about your times.

Well, guess what? I do care about my times. I am slow. I have to watch out, especially in a marathon, for the course time limits. I've run 6 marathons and only two of them have been sub 6 hours. The "average" time of 4:33 is still a long way away for me, and I may never see it. I wouldn't expect to have a hope of qualifying for Boston until I am in my 70s. But, I do train. I train hard. I care about my times, and for the most part, I have improved. I've gotten a new PR pretty much every single year that I've been running. That doesn't mean that I'll suddenly be running that 4:33, but it does mean that my marathon time went from 6:35 in 2006 to 5:46 in 2011, and I'm very proud of that. I do realize that the 5:46 would be an embarrassment to some, but to me, that's my PR!

In some ways, I'm still just a "participant." I do have a friend who recently started training crazy-hard, doing multiple runs per day, multiple speed sessions per week, and seriously upping her mileage. Her times have improved drastically and I have no doubt that if I were to suddenly take that approach, I would also see some drastic time improvements. But, what's wrong with just training like I do, improving in small amounts, and seeing myself get better at a pace that is right for me - and keeps be from getting injured?

So, my apologies to the fasts if my poor race performance is getting your running tights in a bunch, but I do have one big rule - never compare yourself to others.

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Running and Pregnancy: 2nd Trimester Edition

2013-01-22T15:48:00.001-05:00

I'd like to say that I am totally kicking ass, pounding the pavement and proving to everyone that you can run like a badass through your pregnancy. But, I'm not. I'm doing ok, and I continue to work out, but it's not great. I skip runs constantly, on a level like I haven't since 2007, and since I have such a good excuse to do so, I just do. Here are the obstacles that I've encountered that have seriously impacted my running:

I have nothing to wear. If this were last year, we would have temps in the 50s on a regular basis. But, it's gotten cold and running in the morning usually results in temperatures in the 20s or 30s. I slowly grew out of my tights, and then I had one pair of running pants that were too big before that I could still wear. I can still wear them a little, but only one pair means that I am constantly washing them, or else wearing them dirty, which I hate. Then, once the pants situation is resolved, I have only a few running tops for winter that will work. My go-to tops of Mizuno Breath Thermo are all too small. My jackets are all too small, and now Todd's jackets are too small. My best option is old Disney Marathon tops that were like nightgowns before, but they're too thin to wear on really cold days. Dressing for running has been a NIGHTMARE. I did purchase a maternity skirt from skirt sports, and I love it and wear it on the treadmill, but that doesn't help me outside in the dead of winter. I know there are maternity running tights out there, but they range between $70 and $80, and I refuse to pay that for pants that I may only wear a few times, especially when it means I also need to invest another $40-70 in tops to go with them.
I'm afraid to run in the dark. I probably wouldn't be worried about it if I hadn't fallen down in March and totally messed up my knee. I still have a TERRIBLE scar from that injury, so I'm reminded of it constantly. I cannot risk a fall where I might hurt the baby, and I feel like running in the daylight makes it easier to keep from falling. But, that means I have to either run on the treadmill or in the morning. Mornings are colder, so that brings in the clothing problem that I just mentioned.
I'm BUSY. It was the holidays. I was sick for two weeks. We went on vacation. We started touring daycare facilities. We're working on getting estimates to finish our basement. We signed up for childbirth classes... We've had so much going on, I've found myself rushing home from work and staying up late and unable to get up in the morning. Like I said, with the best excuse not to run ever, I have found it difficult to get out there.
Running has gotten really hard. I don't know if it's because I've been running a lot of my runs on the treadmill when I do run, but running has gotten pretty difficult. It could also be because I have not been running often enough. But, the last time I ran (on Sunday), I only made it just under 3/4 mile before I had to walk. And, I had to walk slower than I normally would. My lung capacity is reduced, my weight is the highest it's been since 1998, and I have to pee the second I start running. I'm starting to dread and hate my runs. I'm slow anyway, so if I'm running slow enough, I really have no other option than to just walk.
Runs wipe me out. Even a short run leaves me wanting a nap, which is another reason why I hesitate to run in the morning if I'm already tired. Trying to run and then suffer through a day at work seems crazy to me. My 5-6 mile runs on the weekends have resulted in 1-2 hour naps afterward, which is what I would normally do after a 14+ mile run.

So, that's where I am. My new plan is to walk, and run a little during the walk when I can. I also want to get myself back into the pool when my schedule opens up a little bit (tomorrow, maybe?). I'm at 22 weeks exactly today, so I'm getting about to the point where a lot of my friends stopped running during their pregnancies. I did snorkel and yoga a lot on my vacation, so that is good.

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2012: Fitness Year in Review

2013-01-18T20:08:00.000-05:00

See my 2011 Fitness Year in Review...

And from that:

Goals for 2012:

Diet and Weight Loss - Maintain my weight as best as I can. Be happy with my body and the way I look. Eat what makes me feel good, even if eating what feels good means eating something not-so-good for me. Don't track calories or points. Eat lots of veggies and whole foods, avoid processed. Bake Todd at least one apple pie. Drink wine. As Michael Pollan says: Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants. There you have it - BEST DIET AND WEIGHT LOSS GOALS EVER!

So, this is how this went this year. I did fine with this in January and February. Then, we started trying to get pregnant and my hormones went a bit wacky and I gained some weight. Then, my thyroid medicine was dosed improperly because of the weight gain and I went hypothyroid again, and I gained a LOT of weight. In May, I was diagnosed properly and got my meds right and by August, my thyroid was back under control. But, I decided not to try and lose any weight and to keep it even because if I lost weight, I would go hyperthyroid and that would still be a problem where fertility was concerned. Then, I got pregnant and of course I'm putting on weight (my official doctor scale weight gain is 13 pounds as of today, 21 weeks in). I baked Todd two apple pies, and I drank LOTS of wine before I got pregnant. Since I got pregnant, not so much.

Running - Oh gosh, I'm so conflicted about what I want to do next fall. There's just a lot up in the air. I know I am running a marathon relay in January, and a half marathon in April, possibly one in March. I know I'm probably not doing a full marathon in the fall. But, I might try and captain a Ragnar team. I might do something else, so I guess my goal is to do something awesome in the fall of 2012.

I knew when I wrote this that I was going to be trying to get pregnant, so that is why fall was so "up in the air." I ended up signing up for the 2013 Disney Marathon because I wanted to focus on something long term, but pregnancy caused me to cancel it. I did sign up for the Wineglass half marathon in the fall and that was my "something awesome." I didn't end up captaining a Ragnar team because, again, I was trying to get pregnant and really didn't want to take that on just to find that I couldn't participate.

Workouts - Get back on the bike and continue to be more comfortable with it. Possibly do a sprint triathlon or a aquathon in June. Keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Get better and faster at swimming. Become more comfortable with the breast stroke. Do a pull up.

I really didn't bike at all this year, because... I don't know why. Nothing having to do with pregnancy, although that's why I'm not biking now. I kept wanting to try out cages or clipless pedals, and I kept trying to get my bike off the trainer and out to the trail and it just never happened. Maybe part of it was because I was swimming a lot early in the year, and then my dad was sick during the summer and that killed basically everything fun. Plus, my plantar fasciitis in the summer and fall brought me to PT three times per week, and my PT was right next to my gym where I swam, so I spent most of my time swimming and not biking. I'm frustrated and tired of trying to get better at doing a pull up.

Diving - I would like to do 35-40 dives in 2012. We do already have a couple of dive trips planned, but we are not planning to do as much diving during these trips as we have been doing. I'm sure that I will get out to the quarry some, though.

I never, not once, made it to the quarry. I did do 28 scuba dives, which was a little under goal. But, our dive trips were all low on diving, which was totally our choice. I never made it out to the quarry because it was hard for me to commit to assisting with an open water class when I never truly knew if I would be able to dive or not (the pregnancy thing, again). I did get out to the USS Radford in the Atlantic, which was pretty awesome. Now, I am officially done with diving until the baby is born.

Lessons from 2012

I knew that I didn't want to do the Rock & Roll USA Half Marathon, but I did it anyway, and I got injured as a result. Lesson: listen to your brain, even if it doesn't logically make sense.
And again, never ever do a race because other people want you to.
Plantar Fasciitis can be solved without medication or surgery.
That bike ain't gonna ride itself!
Half marathon in your first trimester? No worries.

Successes for 2012

Continued running for another year!
Lots of weight training, January through September, with a short break in July due to my dad's illness
Jeff Galloway training program, including my fifth year as a group leader.
One 5k race - the Mount Dora 5k in December.
Two 10k races - the Dreaded Druid Hills 10k in June and the Cold Turkey 10k in November.
One Ten Mile Race - the Annapolis Ten Mile Run in August.
Four Half Marathons - The Walt Disney World Marathon Relay in January, the Rock & Roll USA Half Marathon in March, the Island to Island Half Marathon in April and the Wineglass Half Marathon in October.
Dive con for a bunch of scuba skills update classes.
Completed 28 scuba dives, for a total of 245 since becoming certified in 2006.
New Personal Record: Half Marathon (2:32:49 at the Island to Island Half Marathon in April)

Goals for 2013

Diet and Weight Loss - Continue eating healthy and intuitively through my pregnancy, and when I am nursing after the baby is born (provided I am able to nurse, which I am hopeful about). I'll be honest, I would like to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight (the high weight after my thyroid issues is fine), but I don't want to be crazy dieting to do it. So, hopefully eating intuitively will help me to get where my body needs and wants to be.
Running - Continue running as long as I can during my pregnancy, but don't force myself too much. Walk once I can no longer run. Start walking and then running after the baby is born, and promote a healthy lifestyle. I don't expect to do any more races between now and my due date in May, but I would like to maybe do a couple of short easy races in the fall.
Workouts - YOGA. I have decided to replace weight training with yoga. I've been doing ok with it, but I need to be more consistent. Swimming is what I would like to use to replace my running once I can no longer run. So swim, yoga, swim, yoga! I think that my bike will continue collecting dust.
Diving - I have a plan to start diving again in late summer. Hopefully, I'll be able to do at least a little bit of diving after the baby is born. I don't think we'll make it to the Caribbean again this year (we already went to the Caribbean in January), but anything is possible with us... you never know.

So, like last year, a lot is up in the air. But, the goals are so much more interesting when I know that it's all about baby now. :)

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2012 By The Numbers

2013-01-07T12:00:00.000-05:00

My favorite running photo of the year, Walt Disney World Marathon Relay, January 2012

Injury and pregnancy really brought my numbers down this year..

Miles Run: 576.3 miles
Time Spent Running: 124 hours, 9 minutes
Days where I ran: 123 days
Average run length: 4.69 miles
New Personal Records: 1 (half marathon)
Races Run: 9
Distance Swam: 47,240 yards (26.8 miles)
Time Spent Swimming: 22 hours, 27 minutes
Distance Biked: 0 miles... oops
Time Spent Biking: 30 minutes (I did get on the bike on the trainer a little)
Total Scuba Dives: 28
Longest Scuba Dive: 70 minutes (Bush Gardens, Little Cayman)
Books Read: 21
Longest Book Read: A Storm of Swords, 1178 pages
Jars Canned: 99 (various sizes 1/2 pint to quart)
Foreign Countries Visited: 3 (The Netherlands (Saba), Jamaica & The Cayman Islands)

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Mount Dora 5K 2012

2013-01-04T20:35:00.002-05:00

Every year, we make sure to visit Todd's parents in Florida sometime during the month of December so that we get some quality time for the holidays. Usually, we run around their neighborhood, which is a retirement community in Central Florida. It's often pretty hot and we have trouble getting out the door to run before sunrise. Since I was in my 17th week of pregnancy and the forecast was calling for high temps in the upper 70s when I'm used to cold, I thought it best to be careful with running outside.

So, I started looking for races in the area on the weekend that we were visiting. I settled on the Mount Dora Marathon, Half Marathon and 5K in Mount Dora, Florida, which was about a 30 minute drive from my in-laws' house. Of course, I do not have the mileage base at the moment to do a marathon or a half marathon, so we signed up to run the 5K. It was an inaugural, which I don't normally like, but it turned out to be a very nice race that I'd recommend.

We went to Mount Dora on Saturday for packet pickup (in-laws in tow), and I must say that Mount Dora is a pretty little town. The race was being sponsored by the Lakeside Inn, a quaint little hotel right on the lake. We had some lunch and shopped a little, then headed home because we were going to see Cirque du Soleil that evening (it was AWESOME!).

Sunday morning, we woke up bright and early and headed out. I was worried about parking, but we found a space on the street and it ended up being not a big deal. We headed to the start line and I had to wait in line for a potty (pregnant ladies have to pee!). The line wasn't too long, I probably waited 20 minutes. I've had worse. We watched the start of the marathon & half marathon and then started our race at 7:20am. The sun was just coming up and it was warm, but not too bad.

The course was very pretty through palm tree lined residential streets. It was, on Central Florida terms, very hilly. On Maryland terms, I would call it rolling or even average. The Floridians, though, were not excited about the hills.

I was pretty tired pretty fast, and I struggled a bit. For me, it was very warm. I did my best, and found it amusing when Todd mentioned I was pregnant and some lady running near us suddenly sped up like she was thinking Omg, I can't get beat by a pregnant lady.

This was a very nice inaugural race. There were bananas, animal crackers, bagels, etc at the finish line, as well as automated finish times on a big board. We needed to get back, so we didn't stick around long, but we did have a great race. Final time: 39:59, not my best, not my worst, but great considering I'm pregnant.

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Warmest Holiday Wishes!

2012-12-25T07:00:00.000-05:00

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10-Second Book Reviews

2012-12-11T16:38:00.001-05:00

Gone Girl : I've read some complaints about this one because of the ending, which I can totally understand. Nevertheless, I loved this book. I don't normally read mysteries or thrillers, but Jezebel.com had a book club for like one month and this was the book they picked, so I decided to read it. I was even reading it during the weeks that my dad was hospitalized, and I still blew threw it super-fast, so that is saying something. There are quite a few twists and turns, some are predictable, some are not, and I just had to keep reading in order to figure out where it was going. Really loved this book.

Outlander: This was recommended to me, and I liked it, but not as much as I expected to. It's a time travel romance, where a woman living in 1940s UK travels back in time to Scotland in 1743. She falls in love, etc, etc. This book is LONG, and it's one of a crazy long series. I thought parts of it, especially the beginning, were too slow. Other parts were just too much sex (yes, that is possible). The last third of the book picked up quite a bit and I ended up feeling like I wanted to go on and read the next one in the series, although I have yet to do so. I actually set Outlander aside so that I could read Gone Girl and then came back to it, so that shows how long and slow it was at first.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven: I've had this on my to read list for basically 5 years or so, or whenever it was on the NYT Best Seller List. I decided just to read it - my dad had just passed away and I thought that perhaps this one would be cathartic. It was short and it made me cry, but I don't know that I really felt like it changed my life or anything. Regardless, it was an easy and interesting read and I can understand how it made the best seller lists.

A Clash of Kings: I knew I needed to read the next Game of Thrones book, since I had finished watching the first season of the HBO series and Todd was bugging me to move on to the next season. I enjoyed the second book much more than the first, and I think it's a must-read if you're a fan of the HBO Series. There are just too many things that you don't get from the series that you get from the books - additional characters, more subplots, and a better understanding of all of the characters and families. There were a few big things that happened in this book (which you know about if you've seen Game of Thrones Season 2).

A Storm of Swords: After I finished Book 2, I just had to go on and start Book 3, especially because some elements of Book 3 showed up in the second season of Game of Thrones. This is my favorite of the books so far. There are SO many surprises and crazy things that happen - and (small spoiler alert) it contains the 3 of the worst weddings in fiction EVER. George RR Martin never ceases to amaze at how quick he is to kill off major characters. Seriously, just a crazy book. I haven't started book 4 yet, because I've heard it's awful, so I am putting it off. I'll probably start it in January.

The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing: I like to read about investing strategies, and the philosophies of the followers of John Bogle (founder of the Vanguard Group) is my personal favorite style of investing. I had already read one of Bogle's books, so this was just more to solidify some of his concepts even more. It's written by a bunch of his followers (also called "Bogleheads"), and I really liked it. Another good, solid, investing book that I would recommend to anyone who wants to learn more about smart investing. Topics covered include retirement, taxes, saving for college, and more.

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Pregnancy, Body Image and Food

2012-12-06T22:04:00.001-05:00

First, let's talk Pam Halpert. If you do not recognize the name, Pam is one of the main characters on "The Office." I love The Office, I've seen every episode. Pam has two children. For her first pregnancy, her baby bump was a prosthetic bump because Jenna Fischer (the actress who plays her) was not really pregnant. Then, she became pregnant in real life and that was when Pam had her second baby. The second time around, Pam's face was fuller. Her chest was bigger. She really looked pregnant. And, I liked the second, more genuine pregnancy Pam better.

The thing is, unlike in Hollywood, you don't just get a baby bump and stay the same everywhere else. You grow in all sorts of places. I admit, I'm not really sure how well it all goes back to where it was, and it is freaking me out a little bit.

I'm in my 16th week of pregnancy. So far, it's really hard to tell if I'm pregnant or if I am just really packing on the pounds. Earlier this year, I had put on some weight because of my thyroid acting up (as a result of going off of the pill), and so I was already in my "fat pants." I decided not to actively try to lose the weight that I'd gained since I had gotten my thyroid to stabilize at the weight that I was, and if I lost weight I would just swing in the opposite direction and be hyperthyroid.

So, I am wearing maternity pants. Holy crap, they are comfortable. I want to wear maternity pants forever. I will still occasionally wear non-maternity pants with a rubber band keeping them "buttoned", but maternity pants are the bomb. I've also really been rocking dresses, because they're the best fitting things right now. And when I wear a high waisted dress or shirt - woa, I really do look pregnant. I do wish that I looked pregnant all the time, though. It's still pretty easy for me to hide my bump if I want to.

So, given my normal struggles with food and body image, how's all of this going for me?

Like I said, I am struggling with the changes that my body is going through, just from the standpoint that it seems like it's just doing a bunch of crazy stuff all on it's own. I compare it to the movie Independence Day, where they had the UFO in Area 51 and they'd been studying it for years, but then the alien ships showed up and it lit up and started actually doing stuff? Yeah, that's my body. For 34 years, it has been what I know and love and been pretty standard. Now? Totally, it's off on its own doing its own thing. Parts of my body seem to suddenly have a purpose when they had none before. It's just... well, I'm just not used to it. And there's a lot more in store, I know. I thought since pregnancy is a natural thing and all, I wouldn't be as surprised as I am by all of this.

In the meantime, I'm doing my best to eat right. The great news is that I am not craving junk food or milkshakes or things like that. What am I craving? Nothing. I have been thinking for years and years that I have such crazy cravings normally, that, woa, what will happen when I get pregnant? Answer? I will crave the opposite and just generally not want anything, and yet be ravenously hungry at least every 2 hours. I dislike chicken and broccoli. My sweet tooth is basically gone, and while the first 2 weeks of not having booze was heartbreaking (sorry, it was), I've gotten used to it. I've also found a great winery that makes dealcoholized wine, which has really helped me out. Naturally, I found out I was pregnant less than 48 hours after buying 12 bottles of wine at the Maryland Wine Festival, but Todd's been taking care of those on my behalf.

So, with all of this together, I have found it so much easier to follow intuitive eating when I'm eating for two. Taking the whole pressure from society to be thin thing away has really helped. Now, if only I could carry this over to my non-pregnancy self... Still, eating has become the most difficult thing about pregnancy. Trying to figure out what I want, judge if it's ok for me and for the baby, and then actually acquire that food and then eat it is not easy. I've only gained 3 pounds (officially according the doctor, but that last weight was taken the day after Thanksgiving). I'm not even at my highest weight for 2012 (I weighed more in May when my thyroid problems were at their peak). But, my body shape has changed a lot.

I am excited to see where these changes take me, and I am pretty excited to see my family over the holidays. My sisters are super excited about the baby, and my mother-in-law is over the moon. :)

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How Exercising is Going Now That I'm Pregnant

2012-12-01T22:24:00.000-05:00

I've always figured that exercise once I got pregnant was going to be a huge question mark. I know that every pregnancy is different, so I really had no idea what to expect. At my first appointment with my doctor when I was at 7 weeks, he basically cleared me for any exercise that I'm already doing, although I'm to avoid anything where I need to lie on my back after about 16 weeks. He seemed not at all worried or upset that I'd run the Wineglass Half Marathon during my 6th week. So, I've been taking it a workout at a time and doing what works for me. Here's a rundown:

Running
Yes, the real reason why I chose not to race the Wineglass Half wasn't because of my plantar fasciitis, but because I was pregnant. Besides the 17 miles that I ran 3 days before finding out that I was pregnant, this was the longest run that I've done during my pregnancy and probably will be the longest I'll run for many months. I did feel a lot more tired during Wineglass than I typically would during a half marathon, and I was also a LOT more hungry. By mile 10, I had eaten all of my food and I was starving. Not eat a gu or a packet of jelly beans kind of hungry, but more like a "let's go to a restaurant and eat a 4-6 course meal now" kind of hungry. And hungry during your first trimester is the equivalent of nausea. So, I was sick and hungry and tired for the last several miles of the race. Plus, during the final sprint to the finish line I suddenly became paranoid that I wasn't getting enough oxygen to my baby. Of course, the baby is fine.

Needless to say, I've dropped out of the Walt Disney World Marathon. I knew that it was a possibility that I would not be running that race when I signed up for it, but the funny thing about trying to get pregnant is that you really don't know how long it will take and what you should be planning for, so I had gone ahead and signed up. We've moved our Disney vacation to later in the year (and baby will be coming with us!!!).

Since Wineglass, 7 miles has been my longest run. I ran the Cold Turkey 10K, also at a slow pace. I would like to do one or two other 5Ks or 10Ks while I still can, but they're not all that plentiful this time of year. I'll keep running as long as I can. So far, I'm somewhat slower, but not terribly slow. I skip more runs than normal, if I'm tired or not feeling great. I am pleased to say that I'm feeling less nauseous now than I was a few weeks ago, so it's been easier to get my runs in. I wish that I had been 100% healthy and in tip-top shape, running wise, when I got pregnant, but it didn't work out that way. At least my PF allowed me a good excuse as to why I wasn't running fast and long...

Strength Training and Yoga
I had a coupon in early September and received 3 sessions with a personal trainer at my gym. I was looking to change up my workouts, and I really liked the personal trainer that I was working with. The first session was great, and I was sooo sore afterwards. We agreed to meet again 2 weeks later, and I did the workout on my own in the meantime, Then, the day before my second session, I got the positive pregnancy test. So, my two final sessions turned into pregnancy workouts.

Do you know how to get a personal trainer to not work you as hard? Tell them you're pregnant. LOL. The workouts were still great, though, and it turned out to be perfect timing to help me figure out what to do with myself as far as weights and strength go during this time.

The bad news, though, is that I became so tired that I would sleep too late, and not go to the gym before work. I would get to work a little late and leave work a little late, and then realize that if I worked out after work, I wasn't going to have the energy to make dinner. And, weight training made me super-nauseous. I don't know why, but running did not make me nearly as sick. I routinely felt like throwing up every time I tried to go to the gym. So, little by little, I stopped going.

Since then, I picked up a few prenatal yoga DVDs and I've been doing them pretty regularly. I'm hoping that they will be "good enough" from a strength perspective. I've also added some "mom & baby" yoga workouts to my registry, so maybe yoga will finally become a part of my life. Maybe, at this time, it's best for me to focus less on weights and more on yoga anyway. I don't think I'm going to be able to keep my gym membership after the baby is born.

Swimming
Ok, I admit it. I started swimming about a year ago not because I wanted to do a triathlon, but because I knew we were going to be trying to get pregnant and I knew swimming was something I could do throughout my pregnancy. But... I haven't really been swimming. I've gone once since finding out I was pregnant. Sadly, that one time I just sloshed around in there a little because I found that my swim cap gives me a headache. My winter running hats and headbands have been giving me headaches also, and I'm so limited in what pain meds I can take that I am hesitant to do things that will give me a headache. So, I'll try again to swim, or I'll get a new swim cap or something, I'm sure. But, I've had the same problem time wise getting out to swim as I've had with weight training - I've just been too tired. So, we'll see.

Stuff I'm not doing
My bike is just going to collect dust. I have too much trouble running into things, so for safety reasons, I won't be getting on the bike. It's possible that I might ride it on the trainer, but I haven't thus far (I just hate riding it on the trainer). It's down in the basement if I ever want to ride.

I also attended one body pump class during my 11th week of pregnancy and ended up deciding that it's really not for me right now. I can't keep up and so much of the class you have to lay on your back, I just don't think it's worthwhile. Since I am thinking I'll have to quit the gym post-baby, that was probably my last body pump class for the foreseeable future.

Scuba diving... :( It's not allowed during pregnancy. I might help with an open water class or two in the pool, but I have to stay in the shallow end. I can snorkel, but Divers Alert Network says it's not ok to scuba dive. I miss it -- even though I probably wouldn't have gone scuba diving during this period anyway.

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Our Dining Room Progress Over 2 Years

2012-11-26T23:22:00.003-05:00

I just happened to look back at my post right after Thanksgiving 2010, and I included a little picture of our dining room. We had two folding tables that year, since we had yet to commit to dining room furniture. We did get some furniture shortly after, thanks to Stowebound Custom Furniture.

Our dining room in 2010

Well, look at it now! I just have to show it off, with the photo that I took Thanksgiving morning. Granted, the table is set properly in the 2012 photo, and I was actually trying to get a good photo (I think in the 2010 photo, I was actually just taking a picture of The Bug hanging out in the chair like he expected me to serve him). Anyway...

Dining room in 2012

Hooray for house progress!

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What I'm Thankful For This Year

2012-11-22T07:00:00.000-05:00

This has been quite a year. I say every year that I am more thankful than anything to be able to spend another year with my family and friends, and that my biggest fear is losing someone I love. And, this year I lost my dad. But, in the sadness and awfulness that surrounded his death and the 3 weeks of hospital time that led up to it, I can still find a few things to be thankful for in that.

The day he died, I got off of work early and headed down to the hospital. No one was there but dad, and I spent of couple of hours just sitting and reading and holding his hand. My brother and my dad's wife and her daughters and granddaughters did come later, and then they left for the night and it was just me again. I was spending the night there, since my brother had spent the night before. After everyone left, I said to dad, "you know, I had been wanting for a long time for us to spend some time one on one, since we hadn't done it in about 15 years... This really wasn't what I had in mind." He passed away less than an hour later, and I'm thankful for that time that I had with him, even if he may not have known I was even there.

And then there's my mom. She made it through a hospital stay in February and surgery in October. She's got another surgery coming in 2013, but at least things are looking pretty ok for her right now. I'm definitely thankful for that.

As for Todd and me - well, if you deciphered my photo from Tuesday, you know that we're expecting a new little family member of our own. Tuesday, we went in for an ultrasound and we were able to see our baby for the second time. The first time was at 7 weeks, and baby was just a blob on the screen. This time, he (or she, but we'll go with "he" since it's easy) was moving all around, moving his little arms and legs - and he looked like a baby! What a relief to see things progressing normally. I spent a major portion of my life thinking that I may not be able to get pregnant at all due to surgery and illness from when I was a teenager, and then I spent most of my first trimester worrying that something would go wrong. After all of that worry, getting pregnant so easily (it took seven months, if you're interested) seemed too good to be true. So, having a pregnancy - and a healthy one at that - is definitely something to be thankful for.

And -- I'm terribly thankful to be out of my first trimester. From what I've heard, the second trimester is the best one, so I can't wait! My nausea started disappearing about a week and a half ago, and last week I discovered that I actually had energy to run! Happiness! I've been running anyway, but skipping a lot of them and running a short 30 minute run in the morning would basically wear me out for the entire day. I'm definitely feeling more energetic. Although, my clothes do not fit at all. So, maybe I'm thankful for upcoming Black Friday sales on maternity clothes!

Todd started a new job in October, and he seems to be pretty happy in his new role. I'm thankful that he is working a tiny bit closer to home, and that he's found a place that makes him happy. He actually went on his job interview the very same day that I got my positive pregnancy test. Big changes all around for us, and most of all - I'm thankful that things seem to be headed in a more positive direction!

So, happy Thanksgiving everyone, enjoy family time and some delicious turkey on this lovely day!

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Somewhere in the Sun

The Home Stretch

The Grey Areas of For-Profit

For Profit Races: Good or Bad?

Boston...

35 Weeks

2013 Tentative Race Schedule

Sea Things #37: Mantis Shrimp

April Fools...

Birthing Classes and More

Third Trimester Update

Review: Les Miserables

Little Cayman 2013

But, I Thought You Didn't Want Kids!

My Fast is Your Slow

Running and Pregnancy: 2nd Trimester Edition

2012: Fitness Year in Review

2012 By The Numbers

Mount Dora 5K 2012

Top Posts of 2012

Warmest Holiday Wishes!

10-Second Book Reviews

Pregnancy, Body Image and Food

How Exercising is Going Now That I'm Pregnant

Our Dining Room Progress Over 2 Years

What I'm Thankful For This Year