10 Running Questions

Sarah and Dimity of Another Mother Runner posted a fun set of questions for running bloggers/moms to answer, so I thought I'd take break from training posts and answer them. Those of you moms (and dads) who are so inclined should consider yourselves tagged! If you blog your answers, please leave a link to the post in the comments here, or email me a link, so I can read what you have to say.

1. Best run ever: This was really hard to decide on, but I think I've nailed it: the XC Xtreme, a small cross-country race in my hometown that I did with my then-fiance now-husband. It was a cold March day in 2005, a four-mile course involving fence-scaling, hill climbing, ditch leaping, water slogging and ropes. I felt really strong and fit in the chilly air. Dan and I ended up finishing side-by-side after I trailed him for a long time, and I finished as third woman (that tells you it was a VERY small race!).

My favorite ever running photo of Dan.

I was behind him at the creek, but I caught up!

Getting my trophy! It was a piece of wood harvested from the course. It smelled like motor oil. The overall men's and women's winners got a set of antlers.

2. Three words that describe my running: therapeutic, rejuvenating, freeing

3. My go-to running outfit is: pretty boring--Nike tempo shorts in black or dark green and a race tech tee of some sort; now that it's chilly in the morning, I'm wearing light gloves, too, and when it gets cold for real I'll trade the shorts for capris and add a jacket.

In a half-marathon last year....pretty typical boring attire!

4. Quirky habit while running: Hmmm...I don't really have one (that I know of!).

5. Morning, midday, evening:  Morning! I'm a morning person all the way. And I always know that no matter how the rest of the day goes, it's OK because I got my run done.

6. I won’t run outside when it’s: both icy AND dark. I can handle either alone, but the combo sends me to the treadmill every time.

7. Worst injury—and how I got over it: my back earlier this year (though it stems from my pregnancy; I've had pain in my low back since late in my pregnancy in 2006); I'm still getting over it thanks to a combo of physical therapy, rest, Pilates and other core work and cross-training.

8. I felt most like a badass mother runner when: I set my 10K PR at the local turkey trot last year in front of my husband and kids. They almost never get to see me race, so it was really fun to know I'd see them at the finish line.

Run faster! Your children are watching!

9. Next race is: the Detroit International Half-Marathon on Oct. 21. I'm loving my training, but this still seems dauntingly close. We'll see how it goes. Right now my expectations for it are low. It's that Dec. 2 California International Marathon that I really want to rock.

10. Potential running goal for 2013: This is up in the air. If by some miracle of magical training by Darren combined with ideal weather and a little pixie dust I do qualify for the Boston Marathon on Dec. 2, my running in 2013 will about having fun and staying fit. I'd like to do a lot of shorter races, run on trails, maybe bust my 5K PR (but not worry a lot about that or anything else). If, however, I don't qualify for Boston, I'll work to stay healthy and continue to gun for that elusive BQ.

7 Randoms, 5 Things I'm Loving and 5 Days Until Tuesday

Countdown to my return to running: T minus five days, and tick tick tick.....

Beth over at Shut Up + Run recently posted five things she's loving and invited others to do the same. I'm not good with product reviews (my motto with gear is, if it's cheap and serviceable, I'll use it, and I have no brand loyalty), but there actually are a few items I want to mention this time.

I'll start with something decidedly non-commercial.

1. Girlfriend time!

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that my weekly hikes up Boulder's Mt. Sanitas with my friend Christine were a fixture for a long time. We never ran, but we'd try to get a little higher each week, until a sick kid, or a sick one of us, or a trip, or the busyness of life set us back. But we'd just start trying again, having lots of laughs on the way up and down for one fun hour at dawn every week.

Well, she moved south of Boulder and I moved north of Boulder, and it's gotten more difficult to meet up. But I'm happy to say we managed it this morning. It was beautiful, despite the smoke that blew in toward the end from the horrific High Park Fire (now over 50,000 acres and counting--please pray for those affected).

Christine and me at sunrise!

That's Green Mountain to the south, where Dan and I hiked on our anniversary. The sky was lovely and blue until the smoke came in.

That's not all the girlfriend time on tap for today, however. Tonight Cynthia and I are going to see this guy:

Scott Jurek; thanks to womentalksports.com for the photo

He's doing a Q&A and signing copies of his new book Eat and Run in Boulder tonight. Cynthia's bringing her camera, so there may even be photos to prove we were there, next to his fat-free endurance god goodness. Maybe some of it will rub off (I have to say, though I was vegetarian for a few years, I don't think I'll ever be talked into being vegan--I just like dairy too much).

2. My new trail shoes:

Mizuno Wave Ascend 6

As a "pioneer" member of Mizuno Running USA's Mezamashii Project, I got to choose a pair of any Mizuno shoes I wanted for free. A huge lucky break!!

After my trip up Green Mountain with Dan on our anniversary, which featured a couple of falls on the loose gravel of the descent, I decided I needed some real trail shoes. Since I'm not running yet, I haven't been able to take them for a real test drive. But I did wear them on one of my Alter-G runs and I wore them up Sanitas this morning. The Sanitas trail is just as steep in spots as Green Mountain--and I did not slip once (notice the tire-like tread on these babies?). My back and I were both exultant about this.

I haven't decided if I'll be wearing these or my Brooks Pure Flows for Tuesday's return to running. It's on a gravel path, but it's so flat that it hardly qualifies as a trail. We'll see.

3. The American Library Association Annual Conference in Anaheim. The big library love-fest is next week, and I get to go. For five days it will be me and thousands of other librarians and guy-brarians (the affectionate name for that rare beast, the male librarian), mingling in all our geeky glory. These conferences are intense, but I'm hoping to get some early morning runs in while I'm there.

4. Green smoothies. The Green Smoothie Challenge is going great for me. Almost halfway through the month, I haven't missed a day, and I'm all stocked up on packets of Vega One for the conference trip next week.

A couple of things I've learned about making smoothies: having crushed ice really helps the consistency and pleasure factor of the smoothie; you really don't taste the spinach at all; and to blend best, put your greens powder, ice, almond milk and banana in first, then put the spinach on top of them (at least, that works best for my clunky old blender).

5. This book:

I'm not normally much of a mystery reader, nor have I ever read Jane Austen fan fiction (because, let's be honest here, 99.8% of all fan fiction sucks), but I'm enjoying this one.

Moving on to another list......

Earlier this month Michelle at average girl doing average things tagged me with the One Lovely Blogger award. Since I think I was at the end of the line on this, I won't post the rules or the logo or tag anyone else (though you should consider yourself tagged if you haven't been!).

What I will do is tell you seven random things that have nothing to do with physical therapy!

1. I wanted to be an astronaut for a little while when I was a kid. Then I found out that it would probably be really hard to be an astronaut with motion sickness issues. Since I start feeling sick in the back seat of a car in about, oh, 20 seconds, I changed my mind about my career path.

2. My maiden name is Ewing. I love the name, but I suffered through multiple references to the 80s show Dallas as a kid. Now that they are bringing the show back, I'm not regretting my decision to take Dan's last name (not that I regretted it anyway, but you know what I mean).

3. I'm hoping someday to do some fell running in the U.K. I dream about this kind of terrain and weather when it's especially hot and dry here. (Speaking of motion sickness, the video made me a little dizzy.....)

4. My daughter currently wants to be a boy (specifically, she wants to be Luke Skywalker) and my son has been known to play with Barbies. It cracks me up. I guess if they switched, I'd still have a boy and a girl, right?

5. My favorite breed of dog is the greyhound. Does anyone know if people with allergies can live with them? My husband and son are both allergic to dogs. Not can't-breathe-hives allergic, but red-eyed-sneezy allergic.

6. My spate of not taking crap from rude library patrons continued the other night. A particularly officious female patron with whom we've been dealing for a long time needed to go down to the circulation desk for an issue she was having with a hold on a book. She sniffed, "I am NOT going back down those stairs." To which I replied, "Well, you'll have to if you want to leave." (People are so lazy about the stairs there. I'm not talking about the disabled or moms with strollers or people who really need the elevator. I'm talking about the majority of the able-bodied, who should use the stairs because they're better for you.)

7. Dan and I are trying to decide if our kids, at 5 1/2, are old enough to fly on their own to see their grandma. It's a one hour flight. We can take them all the way to the gate, and my mom can meet them at the gate on the other end. Will wants to do it. Ruthie's not sure. My mom is game, and my sister is there if she needs help.

Do you think a pair of 5.5-year-old twins can handle a one-hour flight on their own (one of their classmates recently flew alone to see her aunt in Washington D.C.)? Could you ever be vegan? Any other Mezamashii/Mizuno free-shoe recipients out there?