She's 6 months old already!

Yes, you read that right. It's been 6 months since Claire was born! Well, technically 6 months and 1 day. I never do stats on her growth, but I figured her 6 month birthday was a good one to do.

6 months, 1 day old
17 lbs, 12.8 oz
27 inches long
45 cm head circumference

Her height and weight is down from the 95th percentile into the 90th percentile. So she starting to even out now. Still though, at 6 months old she is in 9 month clothes.

Foods she has tried (and loved): Sweet potato, green beans, sweet peas, carrots, squash, bananas, apple sauce, prunes, pears, and baby oatmeal cereal. I have also started giving her some diluted fruit juice to wash stuff down after she eats.

Milestones: She can roll over from back to front, and from front to back. Grabs and reaches for every thing ad promptly tries to put it in her mouth. Loves her reflection in the mirror. Usually sleeps for 7 hours at night in her crib. Sprouted her first tooth which popped through yesterday!

I can't believe how fast she is growing. It doesn't seem like she should be this old already. I was taking some pictures of her yesterday and there are a few that she looks so grown up! It makes me sad, but excited too.

In other news, Jonathan and I got into the AJC Peachtree Road Race! They started this new lottery system and we were fortunate enough to get in! Too bad the odds on the MegaMillions isn't as good.

Ok, here they are...

In all their horrible glory. And, yes, I did do a screen shot of the website, thats why they say Proof. I hope this isn't considered reproduction...

Here we are on our way to the race start. Whats with the side hug? We are husband and wife, promise.

Here I am running under the camera people. I was looking up the whole time at them. They didn't get me until I thought I was out of their range. Grrr... Unfortunately, it is the best one of me, rather, the only one that I don't look like I'm walking or making a scary face.

And finally, Jonathan. All his pictures turned out great. Don't let him tell you otherwise.

Goofy pictures

Why are race pictures so unflattering and always make you look goofy? Peachtree pictures were posted today, and I look awful. Even in the picture of Jon and I where we aren't running, I look stupid. I really had to pee, and we stopped quickly, so I am mid stride, and I just look dumb.

Even in the race pictures, I look weird. Seriously. It doesn't even look like I'm running in them. I know this is because I take such short strides. I really do. Its something my cross country coach was always yelling at me. He said since I'm so tall, I should take one stride for every 2 he takes (I'm 6 ft, he was 5'5"). I just do whats comfortable. Maybe that will be something I start working on, that and intervals so I can increase my speed.

Anyway, maybe I'll put some of the pictures up. They aren't flattering.

Peachtree Road Race 2009

So there is it, my time. And let me just say, I had so much fun. Really! The miles flew by and when I crossed the finish line, I felt like I could keep going. While I didn't make a PR, I did beat the time of my last 10k (1:12:36). I'll try to recap the day, can't make any guarantees that it won't turn into a novel...

So, as you know, I didn't get to sleep until after midnight the night before. I tossed and turned all stinkin night long. I don't know if it was because of all the sugar I had, or the two hour nap earlier in the day. It was probably a combination of the both. I saw every hour that night, tossing and turning. Argh, it was horrible. When my alarm went off at 5:30, I couldn't believe how tired I was and how I had probably slept a grand total of 2 hours. So, I trudged along, feeling quite nauseous - probably as a result of all the sugar I ate that night. I forced down some oatmeal and tried nibbling on a banana. I knew I needed something with a little substance, but I just couldn't take any more.

Once we were ready, we left the house around 6:50. Jonathan's TG9 didn't start until 8:56, so we figured we were leaving in plenty of time. Hah! Lets just say that we got to the race area 16 minutes before. Between a full parking lot at the MARTA station, train confusion among the general public (2 different North Trains and if you aren't familiar with the system, very easy to take the wrong one), lines for the porta-potties, and the quest for the porta-potty with toilet paper, we were quite short on time. I couldn't have started with TG7 if I had wanted to. I still can't believe it took us 45 minutes to get to the Lenox station.

So, the race was off to a rather slow start. I think if we were able to start running at our race pace immediately, we probably would have been able to shave 2 or 3 minutes off our time. Hopefully next year we will be able to get into a higher Time Group. I won't go through every mile, but just try to highlight the things I saw...

• I passed on the water stop around mile one, didn't need it just yet.
• Around mile 2, I was wanting it, but there were no cups. Apparently, they ran out. Splendid. So I ran through one of the misters. These are NOT misters. They were sprinklers hooked up to the high pressure fire hydrants. My feet got soaked.
• Right before mile 3 we start to head uphill and I'm wondering where this big hill is.
• I'm in the zone and I look up and see Piedmont Hospital and realize this must be Cardiac Hill...
• Saw the water finally and was practically standing in line for it. I think if I hadn't stopped here, I probably could have shaved another minute off my time.
• Heard the announcement that this was Cardiac Hill and we were passed the hardest part of the race and the half way point!
• Got some yummy watermelon from the Whole Foods people. Yes, I ran with it and ate it at the same time :-)
• Saw some white dudes dancing on the street wearing nothing but Speedos... Yeah, thanks for the motivation to run faster.
• All Crock haters will love this one... I trailed a guy for a little over a mile running in gray socks and crocks (**blank stare with mouth agape**).
• Pushed it and gave it all I had for the last mile (at one point my pace was a 7 min/mile, which of course didn't last for more than a few minutes.)

I am so happy we prepared for the race running all those hills. The hill at Piedmont had nothing on the hills we normally run. I honestly couldn't believe that that was the famed Cardiac Hill. It was surprisingly mild and we ran the entire thing. Don't get me wrong, I was breathing hard, but I didn't feel like I was going to keel over like I often do at home.

I had so much fun on this race and I just can't wait to do another. Even Jon was asking when the next race would be, and talking about next year when we do the race again.

We celebrated the 4th with a steak dinner and my red velvet cupcakes at Jon's parents, then watched fire works in Centennial Park on the TV. I was asleep by 10:15. I was soooo tired, and I slept straight for 9 hours last night.

Congrats to all who ran in the race! The weather was beautiful and couldn't have been better.

I should be sleeping...

Feel free to break into the Emerson Drive song right about now...

Thats right, the Peachtree is in 8 hours. I need to get to bed. But I can't sleep. Stupid me took a two hour nap today. Really? What was I thinking (que another by Dierks Bentley...)

To top that off, I made cupcakes for tomorrow. Red Velvet Cupcakes. And of course I had to sample what I was making to make sure it was edible. And the icing. I really had my fair share of sugar tonight. So, needless to say, I am slightly hyper/on edge/antsy. Eeek!

The main point of this was to ask anyone that reads this to think about Jon and I around 9 in the morning (yes, we are in TG 9 therefore we don't start until 8:56.) We are ready, and I'm really excited about it. Its nice to think that in 12 hours we will be done with it.

So wish us luck. Also, wish Bev and Dusty luck too. I believe they decided to run in the Peachtree after all. Good luck Bev! Do great! I am jealous of your TG 2 start. You will probably be done before I even start running. Lucky. Maybe next year I can get a better time.

So, off to bed with me now.

First of the month check in!

Just my July 1 running check in! I have 3 days until the Peachtree, and every time I think of it my insides do a flip-flop (or maybe thats lunch?)

I am getting excited about the race. It looks like the weather is supposed to cooperate too, which would be splendid. There is a 40% chance of scattered thunderstorms, but that probably won't roll in until the afternoon. And it is only supposed to be a high of 89 degrees that day. This outlook makes me very happy. It has really been nice all week, seldom above 90 by the time I get home from work (6:15-ish) and go run, and low humidity. The low humidity was actually my foe yesterday - while it helped me stay cool, it sucked all the moisture out of my mouth and had my nose the throat burning from being to dried out.

So, this brings me to my first of the month status report:
For the month of June I ran 60.09 miles. Woo hoo! I will easily hit my goal of 80 miles in 8 weeks (Aug 1 deadline). Maybe after that I'll tackle 100 miles in 8 weeks. I'll probably be close to that anyway if I run in July like I did in June.

Well, wish me luck on Saturday! I'll be back with a race report either Saturday afternoon or Sunday.

And, by the way, Jon and I are in start group 9 (actually, I'm in 7, but we want to try to run together). Yes, thats the very last group with a start time of 8:56. I really really hope the weather stays moderately cool...

This blows.

Well, we got our race packets in the mail a couple weeks ago for the Peachtree. As it turns out, I am in time group 7 and Jon is in time group 9. 9 is the last group, they don't start the race until 8:56! That is almost 2 hours after the official race start. It is going to be hot as Hades when it starts. My group starts at 8:33 - not a whole lot better. I want to run with him, but I know that he will run ahead of me since he is a faster runner, so I am tempted just to stick with my time group, but I feel bad leaving him, even though I'm sure he will catch up to me. I also have this fear that I won't get a shirt. They better give it to me, damn it. I trained for this and sweated, I deserve my shirt.

Another tragedy I discovered... they don't allow headphones! Crap. That alone is enough to psyche me out and bring me down a few notches. I really rely on my music to motivate me and keep me distracted from the pain and that nagging, lazy side of me. I guess I will just have to run with my ipod without the earbuds, because I want to track my race with the Nike+. I don't think that will be an issue. I might have to hook it to my waist band so they don't take it away, even though there are no headphones, although I'm sure I will see people running with them.

I'm starting to get nervous. The race is in 11 days. I'm ready, its just the magnitude of this race that is getting my nerves going. We ran 6 miles this past Saturday in 1 hr 15 min, so I feel confident that we can do it. The hills will be killer, so we are setting a finishing goal of 1 hr 25 min. I think that is generous.