Kathleen's Adventures

I found it hard to believe it was already time to race, and to race long when this race approached.  I had only been in the water for 3-4 weeks by that time and that just felt weird.  I had to take 10 days off swimming after my Lasik surgery in early March, but the truth is I hadn't been in the pool more than a handful of times before that.  I did do a 2.4 mile open water swim race the weekend before Lonestar, which helped the half not seem so long. I packed up my car Saturday morning and headed to Galveston.  It was smooth sailing until I hit I-45.  Surprise, surprise.  Once I exited on the island traffic was awful too.  All I wanted to do was get there and sit by the pool with Kim.  I got checked in and registered and finally made it to the pool, by which time the clouds had come out.  Oh well.  We went to dinner with several of my Austin friends and had a good time.  Kim and I were at the Moody Gardens hotel and Alisa, Mel...

Six weeks and six days to the big day.  I feel like my training is coming along nicely, but the next four weeks will be the hardest yet.  I'm somewhat banged up, but not necessarily any more than I'd expect to be at this point.  At one point my right shoulder, hip, knee, and foot were all messed up.  That was pretty awesome.  Now I'm about down to two of those bothering me at a time - that is much better than four!  I'm in PT twice a week and have been a while now for my right shoulder/neck/scapula area.  Its messed up from sitting at a desk all day long but it gives me trouble on the bike - big time.  It feels like I have a small child riding around with me stabbing me in the back and twisting the knife around while they are at it.  Its lovely.  I think we are finally making a little progress there though, so that is good. Getting a little loopy at 9:45pm/mile 17 of a Thu night long run My long runs are building back up from m...

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?...