Today is going to be a fun busy day. First I have an appt. to get my hair did Then I’m going on a quick shopping spree with my sister. Actually not a spree but we are going to do some shopping. We both have some trips coming up and decided we want some cute clothes. Right after that we are leaving for our camping trip. I have everything packed and ready to go. I wish I would’ve/could’ve slept in this morning but that didn’t happen so at least I got a few things done.

I worked on my running/workout  playlist. You know I love my music when I’m running so I’m constantly adding new music. It seems like everyday I hear something new that I like, I write it down on a note then have a list ready when I have time to add it to my iPod. When I was running with my sister often I actually wasn’t running with my iPod. I don’t usually do that but I wanted to make sure she knew that I was listening to her incase she needed to stop or when she was ready to go. The two races we ran with her I didn’t wear my iPod either. I’ve never done that before…I love running with music. I was surprised that I actually liked running without my iPod for a shorter distance though. I’m not ready to run more than 3 miles without music but it’s a start. So here are some new songs I added this morning…

Chasing The Sun- The Wanted

We Run The Night- Havana Brown ft. Pitbull

Time of your Life- Kid Ink

All About Tonight- Pixie Lott

Dance Again- Jennifer Lopez ft. Pitbull

Beez In The Trap- Nicki Minaj

Drank In My Cup- Kirko Bangz

Mercy- Kanye West

Back In Time- Pitbull

Sail- AWOLNATION

Stupid Hoe- Nicki Minaj

Any good songs you recommend?

Have a great weekend!!

Betty

Memorial Day weekend plans:

We are going camping over the weekend but we’ll be back by Sunday night. I don’t have Memorial day off from work. They offered it to us but I decided to work since we get paid more that day. It’s our yearly Memorial Day weekend camping trip. We are definitely looking forward to it.

These last couple months have been really busy. This month alone feels like it flew by. We have gone or going to 4 graduations. Tonight and tomorrow night we are going to Craig’s nieces. Then next Wednesday my little baby is graduating (promotion) from kindergarten.

We also celebrated Mother’s Day by cooking my sister and mom breakfast. We bought my mom a smartphone. She’s been wanting one for a while now. She had a super old phone. She LOVED her gift. We also celebrated her birthday on Monday A lot of going out this month for celebrations. My stomach and pockets are taking a huge hit. haha.

Movies:

This month I went to see Dark Shadows.

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I really LOVED Dark Shadows. You know I love Johnny Depp so that might have something to do with it because I’ve heard other people saying it was just ok. I thought it was a nice mix of Beetlejuice and Hocus Pocus. It was funny and it was even a little scary at times. Johnny can do no wrong.

 I also watched Avengers twice. Both times in 3D. Both times I really enjoyed it. Those hotties never get old.

I’ve also been reading/listening to this book…

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At first I didn’t want to tell anyone other than Craig that I was reading it. haha. I was a little shy about it because of what I had heard about the book. They made it sound like it was really “naughty” but decided to read it because of all the hype. I just started the 3rd book and I think they are pretty good. They are not at all as “bad” as a lot of people made them out to be…in my opinion. I think I’ll miss Christian Gray when I’m done with the series. Oh and I’m obviously not shy about telling people I’m reading the book anymore

We haven’t had too much time for t.v. so we haven’t really been following anything. We love Modern Family and Don’t Trust the B in apt 23.

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I think James Van Der Beek is HILAROUS in the show. We’ve missed the last few episodes though since our schedules are all crazy. Oh and I do have a fave for American Idol….

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I actually voted!! I don’t even remember the last time I voted but I voted 20 times. haha. We won’t get to see the finale but I’m hoping he wins

Question: Do you feel like this month just flew by?

Any good movies or books you recommend?

Betty

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No not that kind of streaking

I’ve mentioned before that I am currently on my own type of streak. I have run a race for 8 consecutive months This was not something I had planned at all. I noticed this in January and since then I’ve had a race that I’ve wanted to do. But now that it’s 8 months of races I feel bad not trying to make it a year or maybe even longer. I think it’s also a good way of making sure I stay on track with my running, especially now that it’s all hot and sweaty here in AZ. So here are the races that led me here….

2011

September- Disneyland Half Marathon

October- Susan G. Komen 5k

November- Women’s Half Marathon

December- Las Vegas RNR Half Marathon

2012

January- Run, Walk and Roll 5k and P. F. Changs Full Marathon

February- IMS Half Marathon

March- Kiss Me I’m Irish 17k

April- Firefly 5k and Warrior Dash

May- The Night Run 3 mile run and 8k

June- San Diego Half Marathon- In 2 WEEKS BABY! Can you tell I’m excited?!!

After completing the San Diego half I’ll be at 9 months. I wish that they had all been a half marathon or more but I’ll take this. Most of them were half marathons though so that makes me pretty happy. When I was looking back at my posts it made me feel real good knowing that I kept up with running even when I was sick. I talked about it with you all before, I had a rough few months and looking back now I feel stronger than I thought I was.

Here is the plan I came up with…

July-  Splash Mob 5k run 

August- “Run for the Magic” – Flagstaff 5k run or a virtual race…

(12 months) September- The Breast Cancer race- 5k or 10k

And what I had already planned on doing…..

October- Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5k

November- Women’s Half Marathon and Shun From The Sun Half Marathon

December- Las Vegas RNR Half

January- P.F. Changs Full Marathon

February- IMS Half Marathon

I’m not planning anything after February 2013 but I think I’ll do some shorter races after this. I would like to take some time off from anything longer that a 10k for a few months. We’ll see how that goes.

I like that this wasn’t planned and that it just happened until May so I’m hoping now that I have a plan that I’ll be able to keep my streak for a year, longer would be awesome too

Betty

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 I found a good deal on Gear Buzz, it was $25 with free shipping The socks are from Pro Compression. I already had the blue argyle ones but then I spotted these limited time star ones. I HAD to have them. I love me some compression socks so I ordered them right away. (Not sure if you’ve seen it but I have a star tattoo on my neck behind my ear)

For San Diego we had originally planned on wearing a green or blue shirt to match my argyle socks. We’ve been shopping around at my fave sporting goods stores (I think they know me by name at my local Roadrunner, I’m a little embarrassed to go in there now) and we decided to change our color to red instead to match my new Star Power socks. I mean Craig doesn’t really care what we wear. As long as it’s not pink or purple he is fine with whatever I choose for our outfit. I can work with that, I’ll just save the girly colors for when I run with my girls. I put WAY too much thought into a race day outfit…I know.

I’ve been eyeing this one top for a VERY long time but I just didn’t want to fork over $42 bucks for a shirt. No way. I don’t usually buy things at full price, especially a $40 shirt. I could get like 2 or 3 for that price.

Nike

Well, I bought it.

Anyway, I THOUGHT our  San Diego outfit was set until I got the socks and the top in the mail. I got the socks first and the stars on the socks are pink. I wasn’t completely sure what color they were when I saw them online but I wanted them either way. I thought maybe I could make it work with the red top. Well, I got the red top in the mail yesterday and it’s not red. It said red online but its like a pinkish orange color. I like it but not what we wanted so we are sending that baby back.

We are back with our original plan and I bought this top last night. Craig also bought a shirt the same color.

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I tried it on with my original blue argyle socks and it matches so no more switching. Plus the top was cheaper Oh by the way Pro compression is having a May deal for their pink socks with free shipping! I have been super strong and not ordered them….YET. Only because I already have pink compression socks. It’s been hard

Two weeks to go!! I feel like I haven’t ran a half marathon in forever but it’s only been 2 months. I’m itching for a 13.1 miler especially since we’ll be running in San Diego

Question: Do you put a lot of thought into what you’re wearing on race day?

Craig gives me a hard time sometimes because he says I focus too much on what I’m wearing for a race but I like planning outfits. I think it’s part of the fun. I like planning everything down to my nail polish. Maybe he’s right…I have issues.

Betty

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Even after writing this post last year we have decided to run the Las Vegas Half again.

SAY WHAT?!

This was Craig’s very first half marathon so we have a special place in our hearts for it.  We’ve ran it every year and it would feel weird not to run it again. Not only that, we are very easily convinced to go on a Las Vegas trip. What?! Someone we barely know is having a bday weekend celebration there…We are THERE!! haha. No really. I already asked for the Monday off and we are waiting to register until 06/13/2012 to get 13 bucks off. Plus Competitor sent us each $20 bucks to compensate us for last years issues. That’s $33 in savings.

Click here if you want to check out the improvements.

And even though I was trying to be strong and not order these tops….

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I did. SAY WHAT?! Actually I’m not surprised. I made it a day after finding them. They are super cute and I consider them a good price at $15 each. Also free shipping, can’t beat that. I knew I wanted one of each since I am proud to be a half marathoner but also proud that I’ve run a marathon.

Question:

Anything you had your eye on lately but have decided to want to purchase?

Betty

Spiderwoman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern…

Of course we had to pose like our superheros too

You can’t forget about Superman

The 3 mile run was scheduled to start at 7 pm and the 8k was starting at 8pm. When they sent us the emails with all the information they mentioned that they would be having a mini expo and games It was in downtown Scottsdale so there was plenty of parking.

We parked by the library, I had never been to the Scottsdale Library and I thought it was really nice outside. We want to go back and explore it a bit more.

They had a few booths with free stuff like Activate drink, 5 hour energy drinks and Pop Chips. They also had a lot of pre race snacks like pretzels, bananas, oranges, grandma’s cookies and apples.

We played a game where you spin a wheel and can possibly win a prize. I didn’t win but Craig did He let me choose from a few prizes and I chose a free month of crossfit worth $200!! I’m a firm believer in signs. I’ve been wanting to take this class for a super long time but something always came up. Now it’s free….no excuses. I plan on taking them in July since I have a bootcamp that starts in August. Wooohooo thanks again Craig for winning me a prize!

You can see our goody bags in the picture above. We got a bright tech tee, glow sticks and snacks.

Spidey’s

Green Lantern has nothing 2 lose

And we are there to rescue any dehydrated people. haha.

Craig decided not to run the 3 mile race and stay with the guys and chat while we did our thang…

My sister Paula was fine until we were waiting at the starting line, that’s when her nerves hit. That’s when it always happens, part of the fun.

The mascot of the race, the owl.

We ran some of the 3 mile race in a park that I know very well, I ran here my first time.

They had 1 water stop which I think they should have had maybe 1 more. I know it’s not a long race but it was hot. Other than that everything was great.

My sisters did an awesome job. My sister Paula only complained about being thirsty and my sister Veronica was having calf pain. We took a few walk breaks but we were able to finish at the same time as their last race. We didn’t beat their time this time but we will next time.

I love taking action shots when they don’t know.

After the 3 mile run I think we had about 10 minutes before the 8k started. I took a quick sip of water, bathroom break and we were off for the second race of the night with Craig.

You can see his Superman shirt more in these pictures. I don’t usually wear cotton for races but we really wanted to do the superhero theme. I don’t think I would wear cotton for a longer distance though. I was sweating bullets.

We ran through downtown Scottsdale, by all the clubs and by the park.

See what sweaty beasts we were. They only had 2 water stations which again I think 1 more would’ve been better. I don’t usually drink a lot of water during races but this time I really felt like I needed it.

We finished in 56 minutes. We walked while we drank water because I was one thirsty chica. We felt good the whole time but we were so hungry after the race. We didn’t eat dinner before the race so you know we went out after the race for some grub.

I would definitely run this race again next year. I thought it was well-organized other than the water stops.

I ran 8 miles total that night which worked out for my long weekend run. This weekend we are running 10 miles, it will be our last longer run before SD. We are getting down to the nitty gritty for San Diego RNR

Betty

West Fork Trail at Oak Creek Canyon

The link says it’s 4 miles round trip but that was not the case for us. We ended up doing 8.9 miles and we went as far as we could without getting super wet.

We left around 7:30 am and were there by 9:30ish. We don’t mind driving for a good hike, especially when it’s to see a sight like this…

The trail is easy but so beautiful.

Starting off with our hiking peeps. They brought their dog..Winston. It was also our first time doing a longer hike with a dog. Not sure if all dogs are like this while hiking but he was awesome.

At the beginning of the hike you get to some resort ruins. Of course we checked them out. They have a board with the story but I didn’t read it I was too excited scoping the place out.

You cross the creek a few times. We had our water shoes with us but they weren’t necessary for these parts of the trail.

We saw these things a few times and there was this one particular area where there was A LOT of them. Gave me the creeps. We watched them for a while and it made my skin crawl. I looked them up to find out what it was exactly and they are worm/caterpillar webs. Ewwww. I guess they get really big too.

Back to something that I did like looking at..

That’s better

Parts of the trail reminded me of one of my favorite hiking trails…Fossil Springs. We want to do that one again this summer. Can’t wait.

Craig enjoying the view. We love being out there.

Almost half way through the trail we stopped and had lunch. We found the perfect little spot too.

I love finding cool places to get into .

This is how far we made it. You can keep going in the creek and it ends up being 14 miles one way. Some people park a car at the beginning and end of the trail to do the whole thing. Maybe one day we will go back and do it. We put on our water shoes at this point to explore more of the creek. The water was FREEZING. I swear my toes went numb. This part of the trail reminded me a lot of The Narrows trail in Zion National Park. That was Craig’s favorite trail.

On the way out we checked out more of the ruins.

Family pictures before leaving the beautiful trail

I’m glad we were finally able to arrange a hike with my friend and her hubby. We’ve been wanting to go for a while now. We’ll see what we plan next…

But tonight it’s running time…

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My sister’s 2nd race And Craig and I are running 8 miles total tonight for our long run. “Owl be there” Hope you’re having a great weekend.

Betty

To help prepare for our longer runs I went and bought some supplies the other day.

I’ve been wanting to try the Stinger Waffles for a while and it was so delicious. Not sure if it helped with energy though. The Short Bloks and PowerBar Chews are still my favorite. We also bought some Nuun to go with our new hand-held water bottles. Craig is really loving that stuff.

Craig got the black one and I got the pink one. Can’t wait to try these babies out on our next run. I got mine in the mail today They will definitely help with these long hotter runs. The park we go to has fountains but the water is a little warm. I read really good reviews about these. I really like that it has a little pocket too.

Today I also went to pick up my Bountiful Basket. Love getting this. Every time I know I have a free morning on a Saturday then I make sure to order it.

After picking up my fruit/veggies I met my sisters for our run. The Night Run race is next Saturday!! I can’t wait to show you our outfits

Then I met my mom for a movie date. We watched The Avengers and we both LOVED it. How could you not love that movie with all these hotties!!

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Hope you have a good weekend. I’m about to go have some carne asada tacos and watch the fight with my family and friends

Betty

I have some exciting news!!!

We just booked our vacation to San Francisco in July!! Yay!! We had planned to go to Yosemite National Park for our “main” vacation this year but we changed it. We were both a little sad to change it because we were really looking forward to it but we’ll just have to go some other time Plus we have our Grand Canyon hiking trip in September so we will for sure get our hike on this year.

We are really looking forward to San Francisco, we’ve been wanting to go for a long time. I do have a confession, I think I’ve mentioned it before but….

I’ve NEVER flown before!!!

SAY WHAT?!!

Yup..never. As a kid we always drove everywhere. I love road trips so when we plan our trips we always plan on driving but this time we are flying. I’m a “flight virgin” haha. The flight is only 2 hours so I don’t think it’s long enough for me to freak out. Nice way to dip my toes into the water I can’t wait!! We have so much we want to do while we are there.

Question: If you’ve been to San Francisco…what is a MUST do there?

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This week I also bought my ticket to go see Kelly Clarkson in concert this August!! I’ve seen her twice now and I’m super excited to see her again.

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Also here is our Warrior Dash video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocaWRwI7oC4&feature=g-all-u

Warrior Dash 2012

You’re going to think I’m a huge wimp because I was scared to slide down and 2 men had to hold my legs in order for me to slide. But I saw people getting injured. haha. Hope you enjoy my wimpy face.

Have a good evening!! We are about to leave for our run.

Betty

It was SO much fun. I can’t wait to do it again next year.

Our start time was 2:30 pm. We waited too long to register and got a later time than Craig had last year. It was 98 degrees when we started. It was CALIENTE!! No joke but we were still super excited, especially me because it was my first time.

We got our bibs, Warrior hat things and our shirts. I really liked the shirts this year, I think they’re better than last year We changed into them after the run.

Putting on our sunblock so we prevent some leathery skin.

I think it was a lot bigger this year or maybe because it was later there was a lot of people just hanging out.

I was happy that both my sisters came to cheer us on.

Here’s some of the cheering I talked about.

My sister wearing her Firefly run shirt She got excited when some people talked to her about the Firefly run because they ran it too.

My triple chin and my peeps. haha. Family picture.

I was fine until 15 minutes before it started. I was really nervous about the heat and some of the obstacles that we saw on our walk to the start. I love being a little nervous though, makes it exciting.

Warrior Horns!!! Craig wore the Go Pro camera on his chest so you know I’ll have a video to share in a couple of days

We also carried a camera with us so there’s a mix of pictures my sisters took and that we took on the course.

The first obstacle was running through some tires that were hanging down and moving everywhere. The second was this wall, this was one of the obstacles I saw that made me nervous. Once I started going up it though I was fine…until I reached the top and didn’t want to go down the other side. haha.

We were only passed the 2nd obstacle but my mouth and throat were SO dry.

The 4th obstacle was going over 3 sets of 2 cars and there was tires in between the cars.

When I landed after the last car I heard something make a noise in my left leg and it was hurting a bit. Nothing too crazy but it was uncomfortable.

I hope they really don’t tell anyone. haha.

These two were the hardest obstacles for me. The reason the top one was hard for me is I was trying to use my upper body to lift myself up instead of being smart and use my legs instead.

And the reason this one was hard for me is because I started off by crawling on my knees and it was hurting my shins. Then I saw how Craig was doing it and copied him. Why didn’t I think of using my feet to go across?! ay

There was 2 water stations. Craig said they only had 1 last year but I think they added another one because of the heat…not sure. I grabbed 2 cups the first station and 3 cups at the second station. I was SO thirsty plus I used my leftover water to cool myself down a bit.

At a few of the obstacles we would have to wait for our turn. Everyone was really friendly and helping each other out. At this tight rope the person that just crossed would hold the ropes for the person coming after you to make the ropes a little more steady. It was a huge help to have someone hold the ropes a little. I didn’t see anyone fall in.

This was one of my favorite obstacles because it felt awesome jumping into that water. It was hard to see with the water spraying down on you when you were trying to climb up though. When you reach the other side you have to slide down and I didn’t want to. haha. Craig went ahead of me to help me when I had to slide and he landed on his wrist and sprained it. It’s a little swollen today.

The obstacle I was dreading the most was jumping over the fire. I know…lame. But last year I saw a few people stop right before jumping and it made it harder for them to jump over and I saw a girl burn her leg so it scared me. I decided to not think and just do. It ended up being one of the easiest obstacles. Maybe because Craig prepped me for it before the race. haha.

The mud pit was AWESOME!!!! I didn’t know I liked getting dirty but I guess I do.

Since Craig hurt his wrist right before the mud pit he couldn’t use both arms to get through and had to move using one.

As soon as we crossed the finish line I went for my medal and water.

3.28 miles and 13 obstacles later we were Warrior Dash finishers

I made my sister an honorary warrior. haha. She was really worried about having mud on her because we were going to dinner afterwards. We gave her a hard time about it because she barely had any on her.

Mud kiss

The mud dried fast and it hurt to move so we quickly got ourselves to the wash off area. The water was hard and we kept laughing.

I had the best time even though we ended up a little injured. Craig has talked about doing Spartan next but I wanted to see how this one went first and I’m actually considering it. This was in no way our best time for a race but it was one of the funnest (not a word) races I’ve done. Taking a shower after dinner was very much necessary and I had mud in places I never thought I could. haha.

Thank You Craig for convincing me that I could be a warrior too And thanks to my sisters for putting up with the heat to cheer us on. Love you.

Betty