Kathleen's Adventures

On Sunday, September 20, 2009, I woke up to find countless missed calls and text messages on my cell phone. I was in Oklahoma City for a race Saturday and had apparently slept harder than I had in ages. Those calls and texts were from my best friend Mike. His sisters Katie and Kristi had been in a bad car accident in Houston the night before. A drunk driver rear-ended them and Kristi died at the scene. Katie walked away relatively uninjured, but it almost seems silly to say that now, looking back over the past 18 months since Kristi's death. Katie and the rest of their family are anything but "uninjured." They will never be the same. A few days after the accident, feeling more helpless than I ever had before, the idea for a "Race Against Drunk Driving" came into my head. Six weeks later, I crossed the finish line at Ironman Florida having raised over $15,000 for the SE Texas chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Kristi's memory. My donation was by far ...

So, this is about a month late, but oh well.  My marathon race report in song was a fairly comprehensive report in itself, and fun to write.  I may do more that way. At my last track practice the Tuesday before the marathon, Shawn told me he thought I had the physical ability and fitness to run well in the marathon. He said I just had to get right in my head about it; that he was worried all the crap that had gone on in the few weeks before that could leave my head in another place and less than confident. I walked away thinking (overreacting of course) "ugh! he thinks I'm too much of a head case to run well this weekend?!" But then I also realized that may have been the best thing he could have said. It almost seemed like a challenge - I felt like I had to prove that my head would be in the right place and that I would make it happen. I had to prove it to myself more than him, but it was certainly good food for thought. It was really weird driving to Houston and sta...

I do not think I can even begin to do this story justice, but I have to share it.  As I sit here trying to describe it, all I find are tears - no words.  Tears for a family I have never met.  A pain in my heart for a family I will most likely never know.  I'm finding it unbelievable that Sarah is gone.  Less than a week ago she was video blogging, happy to be home from the hospital.  I'm not sure if anyone knew how soon she would be going to her eternal home.  I can say, without doubt, that I have never known someone so full of grace, faith, and courage as Sarah.  Even in the darkest moments, she always had her eyes and heart on the bigger picture, on God's plan for her.  She led thousands of blog followers through her battle over the last several months.  She showed sheer humility in the presence of the Lord and taught us all far more than we ever expected. Below is the blog post Sarah's husband, Eric, posted early Monday mornin...

I woke up yesterday morning to as close to a winter wonderland as we get in Texas.  I was thrilled.  I could not wait to go on a trail run with the fresh snow.  I've never run on snow before (in, but not on).  It is times like this it is beyond convenient I live on trails because I would not have driven anywhere to run, but was able to get to the trails on foot. I was talking to my mom on the phone on my way through my apartment complex to the trails.  She was telling me I was crazy to go run and that it would be slippery and bad.  I kept telling her I'd be fine, but kept having little squeals here and there.  What hadn't occurred to me was how hard it was going to be to actually get to the trail!  It is maybe 200-400 yds from my apartment through the parking lot/apartment drive to the trail head.  Um...it was completely frozen!  I walked up on the grass where I could because that was just snow, no ice, but the pavement was frozen soli...

A few years ago, I started making playlists for my big running races.  These playlists are very carefully put together and are the length of the time I want to finish the race in.  So then my goal is to beat my playlist.  The lists always end with Journey's "Don't Stop Believin.'"  I haven't made a list to beat in a long long time, possibly as many as 2.5 years because I have not been healthy enough to shoot for a PR since then.  Last week began the task of making my playlist.  I kept a list and sent myself reminders whenever I thought of more songs that would be good to have on it.  This list ended up having 60 songs, and being 4.2 hours long.  I'm annoyed because windows media player used to give you exact time, but now it only gives you tenths of an hour.  That really bothers us ocd types, but I just let it be because 4.2 hours was definitely a PR, I just wasn't sure exactly how long...was it really 4.16 hours, or 4.24 hours?...

With everything that has gone on in the past few weeks I have kind of forgotten I’m running a marathon on Sunday. Oh well, maybe its best that way. Grandmother’s service and reception went well. I enjoyed the trip up there and spending so much time with my family, it is just under unfortunate circumstances. We stayed in Stephenville which was quite entertaining. We didn’t fit in without a huge pickup truck. Yes, we were in a huge SUV, but we only had 4 wheels, unleaded gas, and no truck bed; therefore we did not fit in. We went on to Lipan Friday afternoon to meet with the preacher and get into the church to get a few things settled. We met the preacher at my mom’s cousin, Rhonda’s house. She and her daughter had redone this house and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen such an awesome remodel. Wow. I was so shocked when we walked inside. I’m having them move in and redecorate my currently non-existent house when I win the lottery. Going to Stephenville is going back about 10-20 years in ti...

So after an awful day at work (funny how one person with a serious attitude can ruin someone's day) I found out from my mom that Charlie, my water ski coach from Beaumont, died last week.  I dug a little more and found out he died of a brain tumor.  We had not been in touch since sometime when I was in college.  I had always figured I'd invite him to my wedding and we could be in touch then.  I guess this is a nice wake up call that I shouldn't put off things like getting in touch with someone like I did - especially assuming I'd see whoever at my wedding.  For all I know I'm never going to have a wedding, so it was stupid of me to think that way. I am so sad right now - so sad for his family's loss, so sad that I had not seen him in so long and I did not get to see goodbye.  Sad that I will never see him again.  People need to stop dying.  Seriously.  I know its inevitable, but if I could just go for even a little while without someon...