The Tyler Azalea 10K

What a morning this has been. I just got back from Tyler from running in my second ever 10K. I am physically exhausted but oddly enough, I have a surge of energy from God knows where.

We arrived at Roseland Plantation last night around 8 p.m. and looked around a little bit. By 9:30 it was lights out as we were getting up at 5:45 to head towards Berger Park which is where the race would be at.

We didn't have such a difficult time getting the kids up and found the park pretty easily.

We got our bibs and before we knew it, it was time for the kids to do the 50 yard dash. Sydney, being the little runner she is, was loving all the attention. I do believe she had a great time. She even got a medal (which we didn't), for all her hard work.

8 o'clock quickly rolled around and it was time for Erica & I to take our places to begin our race which was exactly 6.2 miles. The weather was absolutely gorgeous...nothing compared to last year's race where it was super hot.

If you will recall from my last post, my left ankle was not doing so great as I injured it while doing Zumba yesterday morning. Liz gave me some Ibuprofen gel to put on it last night and it definitely helped a lot this morning.

I am proud to say even with a bad ankle and all, I was able to run close to 4.5 miles without stopping. The course was a little bit interesting versus the one from last year. I don't know if the race people were trying to play with us, but if I figured it out correctly, they only had mile markers for every two miles. That was a bit frusterating as I didn't even notice the first mile one and had no clue how I was doing.

Anyhow, I did make note of the 4 mile one and let me tell you right after the marker for that one we went up this hill on Roberson Lane that lasted 4 blocks (this I confirmed with the race peeps)....that hill just about did me in. It was so hard....I finally had to give in and walk a little...by then I was getting chills, seeing stars and my ankle was starting to bother me a whole lot.

When I thought it would never end, the street finally leveled out and though I did not think I was going to make it, I was able to finish in about 1:12:30 (?)....that is roughly 6 minutes better than last year's race. I was very proud of myself.

Erica did really good, too. She was just inches behind me (that is because I sped up too, because I didn't want her to beat me)..she beat last year's time by about 16 minutes....way to go Erica.

We rested for a couple of minutes and before heading back to Dallas, stopped again for a little bit to visit with Christina at Roseland. She had previously told me to make and effort to stop back and she would show us to the surprise room.

I am so glad we did. She took us to this shed looking building that has a canvass of the picture of the last supper on it. She explained to us briefly that the lady that used to own Roseland had several artists come in from Rome about 50 years ago and do a replica of that painting. She said it is painted on three different parts and it took them about 1 year to complete.

This was totally breathtaking. The picture and what it represents is just beautiful. (So glad we did stop)

After that we finally headed home and here I am doing what I promised myself I would do, and putting down my memorable event so that I will never forget this day.

Here are some of the pictures from the last two days. Hope you all enjoy.

Roseland at night.

Liz, Rebecca, Tyler & Sydney chilling outside of Roseland.

This was my bib for this years race.

Like mother like daughter - Sydney & I ready to go!


** For some reason I have been having problems for the past couple of days uploading pictures, so I am going to go ahead and just post this blog and try again later.**

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I got the official results from the race and here are my standings:

Finished race = 1:12:26:12
505 out of 660 (overall)
46 out of 56 (age group)

It's Zumba time!

I suppose if I really wanted to I could make the effort to go into one of the local rec centers or even my gym and do the Zumba classes there, but since I don't want to make the time (the very little I already have), I decided to purchase the DVD's and try it for myself at home.

I did the basic cd yesterday afternoon at home and pretty much discovered what I already knew..I have no coordination whatsoever. It doesn't help either that I have to left feet when it comes to dancing and just even the thought of doing so makes me get all tensed up.

Either way, I tried my best and for the most part did get most of the moves down. I woke up this morning all energized and decided I would attempt Zumba again and though the instruction book says to do the basic dvd again on the second day, I decided I would jump into the next cd which is a 20 minute workout. I am sure that maybe when I get to the third cd, I will regret not doing the first cd with the moves but that is okay.

I managed to survive the 20 minute workout and actually broke a sweat and felt really refreshed afterwards, the only bad part is that I think I might have twisted my left ankle. I hope it's not too bad as I am actually headed out this afternoon to Tyler for the Tyler Azalea 10K in the morning.

The place where the race will be held at is somewhat like an arboretum...there are a ton of flowers, hence the name of the race Azalea.



Isn't this place just absolutely gorgeous?!?

Well, it is but the place we will be staying for the night so we don't have to wake up at the crack of dawn and drive to Tyler, is by far prettier. A million thanks to Christina, Jennifer and her dad for allowing us to stay the night at their breath-taking bed and breakfast.

We will be leaving shortly and I hope my next post is detailing the awesomeness of tomorrow's 10K...my 2nd in case you are keeping track.



Roseland Plantation (Ben Wheeler, TX)

I'm back!!!!!

Well, let me clarify, I was never really gone, because I do have posts ready to be uploaded from all the stuff that has been happening for the past year, but since I figured I am only going to get more behind if I never start over again, I decided I'll take my time in posting the old stuff (no one really might care about that except me anyways), and try to be better from here on out in posting the current happenings.

I might change up the way I utilize this post from what I had been doing in the past so just hold on for the ride. For the few people reading this, you all know that I write as much as I can talk and though I don't consider myself to be a comedian, I must say that some of the stuff I can write can be quite entertaining. Not to mention that my life is pretty hilarious, especially with Sydney poo around.

I recently watched the movie Julie & Julia (yes, I know that movie is from 2009) and totally loved it. Julie, a blogger, and very interesting lady, decides to take on the feat of cooking all the recipes of her favorite cook, Julia Childs, all the while blogging about it. Low and behold without expecting it, she acquires a lot of followers to her blog and they make the 365 blogging/cooking experience all the more worthwhile.



Now let me CLARIFY....I do not have any intentions of attempting to cook 200+ recipes from anyone's book much less blogging about my experiences, which might include burning a lot of things and cooking a bunch of meals with no taste and many which I would probably not eat myself anyway. All I want to do is document the everyday happenings in my little part of the world - as insignificant as they may be.

I have discovered that documenting everything is the only way to preserve things. I do that now by taking pictures, but sometimes even a picture needs a little description to go along with it to make it more memorable.

With that said, I invite you all (whomever you are) to embark in this journey into my wonderful, blessed life. I hope not to put too many breaks in between and if I do, please feel free to give me a nudge. Please feel free to nudge me as well if I begin to bore you all.

For now, I leave you with a picture of the news story I woke up to on the 5 o'clock morning news this morning. I definitely would never like to be stuck in this position, EVER, not in the cab of that truck, much less in the car that was pinned under it, which you could barely see. (Side note: glad to report that the cab driver as well as the two passengers in the car are all okay and walked away with minor scratches.)



3 rescued after Fort Worth crash leaves semi dangling off I-20 ramp and car pinned under tanker