SQUIRREL!

we spent memorial day weekend up in the blue ridge mountains with a couple of couples.  it was a nice relaxing weekend!  

i was trying a new medication to help some of my anxiety lately but suffered from some not so fun side effects.  of the 48 hours we were there i spent over half of them asleep and ~12 of those hours included a nauseating migraine :(  its now 9:30 pm on monday (though my brain still thinks it is sunday) i have had a workout, a nap, baking therapy, a steak, and i feel near headache relief for the first time all weekend!  the sad part is that the pill TOTALLY took the edge off!  i just can not function with my skull splitting like that.  i guess there isn't much worry about when all you are physically able to do is sit in a dark quiet room!  

the highlights of the weekend included jilly's cupcakery cupcakes and a flying squirrel!

 here is a video to show some of the excitement!  the video may seem a little anti-climactic… but this was after the squirrel 'flew' about 20 feet off the window sill.

the giving tree and (t)WFT

once again i count my blessings.  what crazy weather we have had this year.  this was the site at my house prior to coming home from the gym this evening!  luckily there was no major damage!  my 'neighbor' lost a gutter… and even if my car had been in its spot we would still be in okay shape.  

thanks to my neighbors we were able to clear a path to the front door!  

after the clean up (in the pouring rain) and a warm shower i ended up eating cheese and pretzel M&Ms for dinner.  i will designate pretzel M&Ms this Week's Favorite Thing.

this Week’s Favorite Thing (WFT): moms

see how i did that?  i can still use WFT but if I miss a wednesday deadline (or if blogger is down for 2 days) it can still work!  so this past weekend was Mother’s Day.  i had the pleasure of taking my wonderful mom to the Georgia Aquarium.  my camera is not fantastic but i tried to get some fishy shots!  is it bad that all i wanted to eat was sushi and crab legs when we left?

instead of seafood though, we ended up on an amazing patio at fellini’s for pizza.

it was a glorious day: the view, the weather, the pizza, the diet coke with a splash of root beer, the company!  pizza must have been the theme for mother’s day this year... when asked where my mother-in-law-to-be wanted to go to dinner... all she wanted was pizza too!  i ended up with a salad for that one!

post race entertainment

Instead of the 'free' Montgomery Gentry concert, we stayed in for burgers, hot dogs, manis and pedis!  I was more than blessed to see the dance performance by Christina's niece, Ella (age 4)!

the breakfast of champions (...or morons)

This weekend I have enjoyed a nice little trip to Nashville, TN for the Country Music Marathon and Half-Marathon.  If you remember back to my first post ever I mentioned a goal this year was to run a couple of half marathons.   Well one down and I'm honestly not sure if the other half of the deal is going to happen!  Several reasons… 1. I love running… but my body (and I can't help but agree) thinks 7-8 miles is just plenty!  2. Training stinks… I just bought an awesome new bicycle (like a MONTH ago) and have not had a chance to ride it.  If it was a pretty day and I wanted to ride my bike I would think "shouldn't you be running to get those miles in?"  I would feel guilty for riding since the schedule read "8 miles this week". Due to the deafening internal conflict I would end up doing neither or just going to the gym.  And I might be the ONLY person that thought going to the gym was failure (since I SHOULD have been running).  3. Don't get me started on treadmills… I don't do it!

All in all 1/2 marathon #3 in the bag!  I will consider looking into 15Ks in the future!

So rewind a little… the morning of the race it is GO time!  Now mind you… I have been out of town in 2 different cities for the past 4 days, up too late, up too early, driving too much and I am TIRED!  Knowing I can and WILL finish this race but  not looking forward to it one tiny bit!  The 5:00 alarm goes off.  I don my favorite lulus and head downstairs.  Powerade: check, Powerbar: check, Peanut Butter Toast: mmm mmm good.  Well its time to take those morning meds.  You might think I am an 80 year old since I swallow a total of 7 pills each morning.  I have my migraine prophylaxis (2 tabs), MVI, Biotin (for super shiny hair and 'thicker' nails) also 2 tabs, a generic Zyrtec, and my happy pill.  Well as a registered pharmacist I have found it ultimately helpful to carry an array of medication with me at all times to help those in need.  So in my purse is another 4 compartment pill box with some ibuprofen, tylenol, Alleve, generic Zyrtec, migraine medicine, sudafed, ranitidine… you name it!  With all of the traveling I had both med containers in my purse.

I opened up day 1, it was empty (from Friday's dose), opened container 2 and swallowed the contents.  Since I was about to run 13+ miles I wanted to take a little ibuprofen for my future aches to laugh at.  I open what I thought was the IBU slot and there lies my vitamin, my migraine meds, and that little happy pill is just staring at me laughing!  Apparently I picked up the wrong container and swallowed about 10 Zyrtec.  Yes folks, that is 100 mg of Zyrtec.  WOW is right!  Lets just say there was no histamine giving me any problems yesterday!  And imagine the side effects: can't see, can't spit, can't pee, can't $#!^.  Actually the dry mouth FORCED me to drink water at each station, and 100 mg of certerizine is a nice way to prevent "runners trotts".  Those usually sneak up right about mile 7 when you find your zone.  I ran the first 3 miles in my sleep… couldn't keep my eyes open.  I decided to walk a little **a LOT** and really try to enjoy the morning and not die!  Below are some of the pictures from the race.  All in all I did finish, don't care about the time considering I discovered its not that I can't run… its I just don't want to run that far.  And taught myself a little lesson about medication overdoses!

Here is Nina and me at the line for the port-o-johns! 

Getting ready to JAM out at the start line…

I started to "wake up" right at the 10K marker.   

This is when I say to myslef… "so if this was just a 10K I would be done by now!"

I've never really been one to 'relax' a little during a 'race' but the afore mentioned drug overdose and lack of training threw all of my PR breaking chances away.  I decided to follow this guy's sign…

For the first time ever I stopped and reloaded with some carbs… now I know this is a super low carb beer… but it was very cold and tasted glorious!

I love the creativity that goes in to the signs from the spectators… I leave you with 5 of my favorite:

1. (right at mile ~1) "Keep going, you are NOT almost there… sorry"

2. "BEER ---->"  (as seen above)

3. "The reason your feet hurt so bad is because you are kicking so much @$$"

4. "Getting up early to make this sign was hard too"

5. "DUH… Running"