Stomach bug

Ugh... poor little Pol... he's got a tummy bug and hasn't kept anything down since yesterday am. He's in such good spirits though... he's a champ! I'll really worry the day he's still and quiet, LOL! Hope he's better soon! He was up at 1am and then again at 5:50 with a huge mess in his bed poor soul. Hopefully he can get rid of it tomorrow!

So... after a sleepless night, no run for me today although it would have been very much needed. Tomorrow will be a better day for sure!

Running in Barcelona

Today was the day... 58,000 of us, that's runners, TOOK Barcelona... it was AMAZING! People everywhere... colours, pavement pounding... great!

The cherry on the cake was the lap in the Olympic Stadium... I even dropped a tear... it was so exciting!

I did great up to K4: 24:26, then walked uphill... boy it was steep! But "only" took me 23 minutes to do the last 4K... quite happy. All in all 1:14, having to stop at the entrance of the stadium due to the crowd, and on the way out again, and on the last 25 meters which took 5 full minutes (finish area was way too narrow for sooooooooooo many people), which I already took off my time (I stopped my watch!). A great morning with lovely weather (maybe a bit too hot!). I wore my hat, thank goodness! The organization could have been better at times but... no complaints, it was awesome!

Only 3 more races to go and then a (much deserved) break until September!

Kids didn't wake up until 9:30 (that's when the race begun, LOL) so Toni had a lovely lay in too! Can it get any better?

11 hours to go!

To start la cursa de El Corte Inglés... the biggest popular race in Europe with over 50,000 runners! Wow... guess I won't be running on my own tomorrow, LOL!

It is 10:20pm... still have to have dinner but everything is ready for tomorrow. Kid's clothes (they're not coming but ready for DH in case he needs to get them dressed!), my bag and my clothes... all in place... I'm sooooooooo excited... we'll be doing a lap in the Olympic Stadium... I just think I'll cry... it'll be so GRAND! So my bag is filled with spare socks, 2 liters of water, ibuprofen, carnitin, gum, my stop watch, HRM, cap and a few other odds and ends. Have the bibs and *water* tickets ready and the piece of "tartan", the original one from the 1992 Olympic Games, which was the "present" from the organization for running the race! Mine is staying home but I'm taking my brother's to him, he deserves it! Got lots of safety pins too! Need to pack my MP3 player... oh yes... that's a must! Just have!

So, getting up at 6:30, leaving as soon as I'm dressed to be in Barcelona by 8. Race starts at 9:30 but want to allow plenty of time. My brother lives about 8 minutes walk from the start/finish line... great! Weather forecast calls for great weather so I'll just enjoy the ride... there are 2 big and steep hills, 1km long each, one from 3 to 4 and the other from 5 to 6! After that... downhill and flat for 5K... perfect!

Ok... going to get dinner ready. Hoping Pol sleeps the night through again tonight so I can get a few hours straight of sleep!

Only 4 races to go... tomorrow, June 6th, June 13th and July 4th... then a break until September... fits in just perfect!

Hope to do well tomorrow and run pain free!

Running slow

I don't know what's happened... maybe I got some kind of "runner's high" in April when I did my PB's. I run so slow now... I think I'm doing a great time and when I stop and look at the time and distance... well... I don't know how I ever got "faster".

Well... maybe I do... I am NOT eating right... I have to start eating healthy. Why can't I control myself? Gee... if I only had *that* one answer... anyway... I need to gain control. I'll try the library tomorrow to see if there are any books on it!

So I did go out for a run last night and it did me a world of good. Thought a lot about my dear friend and how bad she must feel... It was great to relief stress, meditate and think. My race on Sunday goes for them. There are 2 steep hills, each 1km long. I'll run them both for them. I won't stop and walk even if my running looks like walking. It's the least I can do for them!

No running today... got home after 11pm last night from my run, went to bed at around 1. Pol woke up in the middle of the night to feed... I'm pooped... should go shopping for clothes as the school end of year festival is tomorrow but I think I'll go tomorrow am... can't be bothered now...

Might run back from school tomorrow once the festival is over... it's all downhill ;)

A few things...

I went to Barcelona yesterday. The guy who was at the race stand when I went was useless, he's been dispatched and registered my brother and me wrongly. What an idiot, sorry to say... but hey, there's only a bar code to scan, and a bib number and bag to give, full stop... if you can't even do that... anyway, went and had it done properly, so I got a new bib number (had 7151 and now have 63026, wow! So all is set for Sunday and my race will be dedicated to my bestest friend and a better person!

Coming back from Barcelona, it was "early" as in, I had a little over an hour and decided to go for a run. It was 12:30... HUGE MISTAKE... it was extremely hot and my legs were still tired from Sunday... not my best run but a run nontheless! Thank goodness I wore my new hat... the sun was shining bright and strong, no wonder, being the time it was...

And today... I got very sad news... my bestest friend, the one I'm dedicating my race to on Sunday sms'd me to tell me she lost her baby. She was 3 and 1/2 months along... this is her second m/c and the worse is that she was at the ER yesterday, everything was fine, as in heart was beating, and this am, she "gave birth" to the baby and had to go with the baby to hospital. Nothing to be done... I so feel for her... she so badly wants to be a mom and she's such a heck of a woman... not fair, not fair at all. I am there/here for her. I will hold her hand and we'll cry together, cause that's what we do... no words needed... so I'm going running now and I'm running for my "nephew or niece" that's resting in peace. Sis, you know I love you. I'm right here for you!

It's hard to understand life at times... why do things like these happen? I've been there 3 times (well, not that bad, as passing the child and seing it...) and it ain't fun. It hurts so bad. We're human and time helps heal but these children will live in our hearts and lives forever. So unfair to see "not as great people" having children without problems and seing others struggle when they're good. I just don't get it.

It's at times like this when you realize we often complain about STUPID things, things that have no meaning, that we moan too much too easily. We should really focus more on the truly important things and forget about the silly stuff. We should also (at least me) value more the simple things in life because we take them for granted, yet, they're all wonderful. Things such as the sunshine, the flowers blooming, the smile of a child, a full moon, a starry sky, having friends, having a wonderful family... we really must see past the end of our noses!!!!

Enough philosophy for today. Guess I needed to "download" a bit... feel so bad for her, she must feel sooooooo empty, my poor dear friend... she's about the best person on earth! Love you sis!

Cursa de Fons d'Olivella-Margalló

So, I (sort of) did it! 13kms in the parc natural del Garraf... what a steepy race... my goodness... never seen anything like it but also, never seen such a beautiful place to run in before! Lovely mountain trails and woods... very very nice! It was very hot. The race usually takes place in early April and it was moved to late May but kept the start time at 10am... way too hot but it was a gorgeous day so, no complaints :)

Up to km4 it was ok, downhill and mostly flat but after that... geez... it went up, up, up and specially from k8.5 to 10... that was a killer... looked more like a climb than anything else! Still, the sight at the top was priceless! Last 2ks were mostly downhill. Finished in 1:40:55 according to my stopwatch which I trust because I turn it on as I cross the start line and off as I cross the finish line! Slowish but considering I walked about 4-5ks I don't think it's that bad! Got to meet many of the people that train with my PT so that was nice too. I was with Maria the full time, a lady in the team. She's great. So nice to finally get to meet her! Also met my PT... a lovely humble guy, he's a champ!

So today... I'm sore, sore sore... my quads scream everytime I go downstairs or downhill... ouch! I can also feel my glutes... on the bright side... I DO HAVE SOME!!!! But it's a *nice* kind of pain... I got a heck of a workout yesterday!

Didn't feel my injury at all yesterday. Wore my compression socks. Was ok up to about an hour ago when all of the sudden it started bothering me... weird considering I didn't do anything, it just started bothering... oh well... hopefully I'll get rid of it some day!

Next race is an 11K on Sunday in BCN, with about 50,000 runners! Should be fun... we'll go IN the Olympic Stadium and run a lap around it... I get goose bumps everytime I think about it... I think I'll cry when I'm there! Can't wait. Hope my leg *respects* me! First 3k are about flat, then 4 go up and then the rest is downhill, woohoo!

Kids are good... love my babes, they're my strength, they're my life!

Saturday

A week ago today, Paula won her first medal ever. She still has a smile on her face. And I'm still soooooo proud of her and all the effort she puts into it but specially of how much she likes it and enjoys it! She was told yesterday that due to her results on all 3 phases of the competition (Feb. 14, March 20 and May 15) she's going to the final on June 6th (yes, only 2 weeks from now, yikes!) and she's the only one from her group going... can a mom be more proud? I'm thrilled and so is she... she loves competing... well... don't really know wether she understands what competing is/means but she loves the atmosphere, being with the coaches, etc. It really is nice! So off we go to Barcelona on June 6th, waiting to know about schedules since I have a race that am that I might have to skip depending on the time she competes... I'm not missing it for the world!

I have posted my 5 favourite pictures (from the 3 competitons) on all the apparatus. So great to see how far she's come! Proud? Yes... I am VERY proud! :p

So, ok... I went out running on Sunday and while it was "liberating" and great, my 3 year long injury, re-appeared... I could NOT believe it... what's up? I've invested on proper good and expensive shoes, I have a PT, I do ST I try to take care... I am sad/confused/overwhelmed/angry/in disbelief... well... you can picture it. Knowing me, I did NOT stop running, I run through it and in the end (as it used to happen almost 4 years ago) it disappeared but then, I can feel pain any time of day. I did have (not now but a year ago) X-rays, scans and an MRI that showed NOTHING and I mean NOTHING, which is desperating. There's pain and yet noone can figure out what's up! My doc is in Puerto Rico at the world's sport's medicine convention giving a talk on plantar fascitis and a treatment he's "created" for it! So I have to wait for him to be back. Then again, it seems like it is a circulation problem after all. I do have a very thick vein there and I've always said if it could be like a "varicous" (sp?) vein. My doc said I have bad vein return so it could be that... I don't know... it could be... the heat's started... who knows!

Anyhow... it's a downer, I've been really anxious and feeling the pain here, there and everywhere. Still, I have a 13K race tomorrow that I'm going to, previous ibuprofen, of course, as I do in all my races. We'll see what happens. It's on dirt too so that should help!

On Monday I had a dizziness spell that was horrible, felt bad Tuesday night (ate no dinner, so something had to be wrong, LOL) and was dizzy Weds am, so I went to the doc Weds pm. Had 2 EKG and some neurological tests... all is NORMAL, thank goodness! Anxiety/stress seems to be the cause... funny how when they don't know what a child has, it's always a virus and when they can't figure out what an adult has, it's stress... oh well... in my case, could very well be ;) My doc, who's awesome said she'll talk to the cardiologist (sp?) anyway and will have me on a HRM for 24 hours to see if they see anything, which she says could be a littel arrythmia which is normal and I shouldn't worry about... not worry?? Easier said than done! I did have an effort test last August and everything was normal and the EKGs are normal so I guess all is a-ok!

My nephew's bday party this afternoon, race with post-race meal tomorrow... hoping/planning to start a healthy/healthier life as of Monday. I need it. My arms I grossly fat and so am I all over, but that will soon be history :)

Fingers crossed for all my aches and pains to go away the same way they came ;)