Guess Who Got Engaged! !!

I have A Lot that I could write about on the lupus front, but I have more exciting news!  Tim and I are officially engaged!  I wouldn't be a true female if I didn't write a blog about, so here goes.

( I can't even think about this, without my eyes leaking.  Don't worry the leak isn't a side effect of lupus, but rather my way of saying tears are falling.  All Happy!  )

One of my Christmas Gifts from Tim was a Spring Break trip to Las Vegas!  On our first day of the trip we toured Hoover Dam and then drove to Arizona to participate in a trail race. The views at the dam and on the drive to Arizona were amazing!  The trail race was just beautiful!  It never fails that during every race I am shocked and amazed at how fortunate I am to be competing in such an event!  This race was no exception, as it was a true butt kicker!  This was the perfect way to start the day that we would get engaged.

So, getting to the point of this post... We finished the race and cleaned up a bit and then set off  to drive back to Las Vegas via Sedona, Arizona for some sight seeing.  We stopped at an area called Bell Rock Vista to take a little hike.  The views in his area were just beautiful!  Tim got a little back pack out of the car to take on our hike and he wouldn't let me look at it.  I did think that it was odd, but had NO IDEA what was coming.  We hiked out a bit  until Tim found a nice spot to sit.  He asked me to sit on the rock and made me close my eyes while he got it ready.  He got out a little Pooh bear and told me to open my eyes.  ( If you know me, you know that I love Pooh!)  Tim was holding the left arm of the Pooh and said to me, " You can only have him if you promise to marry me."  He then let Pooh's arm go to display the most beautiful ring!  I HAD ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA HE WAS GOING TO PROPOSE!   My answer, without hesitation, was YES!  This was one of the most romantic, beautiful , special experiences of my life!  It was like something out of a Hallmark movie!  Here is our engagement pictue, note we have on our matching race shirts.

January 2013... The Numbers

I typically have no idea how many miles / hours that I cover in an given week/ month/ year.... so, I'm going to try to keep track of my exercise this year.  I'm spinning at the Y, so I am just using an average of 20 miles for an hour class.  In January 2013 I logged:  120 miles on the bike, 26 miles of running and 16 hours of, "other."  This month "other" is defined as:  elliptical, stair stepper, pilates class, and workout videos.

I'm pretty pleased with these numbers, considering that I have had A LOT of joint, muscle pain -  thanks to mother nature.   On the lupus front, I had a small eye inflammation in my eye, nothing that a healthy dose of steroids aren't taking care of, gotta love steroids!

Cincinnati Half Marathon

I did my first half marathon without TIm today.  My solo effort had my nerves on edge, as Tim is the one who always works out driving directions, parking, and departure time. The races started at Sawyer Point which is an area that I am only slightly familiar. Thanks to NancyBarbara, my trusty GPS I arrived successfully!  The races sells itself as a low key no frills event and I would say that is exactly true. The course was pretty cool, running around downtown Cincinnati.  I have never been around Paul  Brown Stadium  so  it was a sight seeing adventure!  I started out probably faster than I should have, but was feeling good.  The temperature at the start was pretty nice and  pretty soon I had worked up a good sweat. The first 9.5miles of the race were pretty I eventful, and then it started to drizzle and the wind really picked up!  At this point I was on the stretch that runs along the Ohio River  and was hating every second of the breeze. By mile 10 I was shivering cold and wet. It wasn't supposed to rain!  Here is where I fall apart.  I hadn't been running more than twice a week, so I was a little undertrained but had been getting in a weekly long run, so I knew that I could go the distance.  Unfortunately the cold rain made my legs cramp, BAD!  My quads, calves, and hamstrings were cramping, in both legs!  Every step was painful!  I started feeling sorry for myself and putting on a little pity party, which resulted in not taking full breathes and causing dizziness!  Not one of my brighter moves!  I gave myself permission to walk the rest of the race with the coal of moving slow, breathing deep, and being thankful for the ability to be able to finish!  I finished, slow and steady.  My legs feel really beat up and sore. I dread what they will feel like tomorrow!  I have no pic of me because all I wanted to do was get in the car and get warm!

I Had This Crazy Idea.....

My idea was to complete an ironman triathlon.  .  An ironman is a triathlon that consists of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike, and a 26.2 run.  No, I'm not crazy I wasn't going to do it all in one day.  My goal was to do it over the course of one week.  I'm happy to say that I did complete the the ironman, but it took me 8 days.  Maybe I'll try it again some day.

My summer numbers / goals:  run 107 / 125, bike 1000 / 563,  swim 8 / 25.

Tour de Cure

Tour de Cure The Tour de Cure could have been appropriately named, Tour de Hills, Tour de Beauty, Tour de Countryside, Tour de Heat, Tour de Humidity, Tour de Goats, or Tour de Fun. As always it was a great ride and Tim took excellent care of me!

A few months ago Tim suggested that we participate in this American Diabetes Associations bike ride / fund raising event. I have had several students who live with diabetes and I am extremely impressed by them and how they live with diabetes. I decided that this would be an excellent opportunity to do something in their honor. Tim and I made a team and raised $415 to be donated to the American Diabetes Association in Honor of two of my students, Alexis and Jordan. We had decided from the start that we were going to do the century ride (100 miles.) Just before the race we learned the century riders needed to finish by 3:00. Well, I'm slow and finishing by 3:00 just wasn't possible for me. Tim and I were discussing our options, one of them being to ask if we could stay on the course without support to finish up our ride. Let me explain what "support" means. The event had stops every 15ish miles where they supplied water, sports drinks, food, and restrooms. We were riding out in the beautiful Iowa countryside, so support was a MUST HAVE on this HOT summer day!

As it got closer to the day of the ride, the temperatures were getting higher and higher and the reality of us staying out on the course without support was becoming less and less likely. We had made an initial decision to start the 100 mile course (the events had staggered start times, with the century starting first) and then just picked up by the SAG (support and gear) truck at 3:00. That decision lasted less than a day. In rolled the storms! The hourly forecast called for storms at the start of the century ride, so we decided to just go with the 50 miler. As we were leaving home there were still rumbles of thunder and I was a bit worried that the ride wouldn't take place because the skies still looked pretty dark, but there was no rain so we were going for it! There we are at the start line enjoying the singing of the National Anthem when huge rain drops start to fall! Fortunately it only rained for about 2 minutes, and we never saw another drop the rest of the day! I was happy at first to have no rain, but then on came the HEAT! Do you know what happens when it gets really hot right after a rain? ? ? Yep, that's correct HUMIDITY!! I had told myself before weeks before the event that I would not only be doing this event to honor my former students, but I would think of their strengths to help me to complete my course. I have never once seen either one of them complain about living with diabetes. They take multiple trips to the nurse's office on a daily basis for check ups and medications. They have to check in after lunch, before lunch, before school, after school, before class parties, after class parties, before class treats, after class treats... do you see my point? They are TOUCH!! Pain hit me around mile 40. I needed to remind myself not to complain and just keep going. I was hot, stinky, sweaty, my legs were tired, and my bottom wanted to be done with the bike seat. I kept telling myself that this would all be done once the ride was over and that I would go back to living my normal life. My pain would end, their diabetes wasn't going to, and that was the purpose of the event.. to raise money for research in hopes that some day soon a cure might be developed. With this in mind I continued through the end of the ride. I was a hot, sweaty, stinky mess at the end! Some highlights of the event: Red Riders - people who were riding with diabetes! There were several, three stood out to me- 1. a female a few years younger than me riding a mountain bike. This was a very hilly route and it was difficult enough on my road bike, I can't imagine doing it on a road bike. I also kept reminding myself how lucky I was that I didn't have to live with diabetes. 2. A 20something man with an insulin pump on his belt. I had never seen someone so active with a pump. I found it encouraging. 3. An older rider. He impressed me for two reasons - 1. His age and the fact that he was still so active 2. His derailed broke and his bike was stuck in a high gear. That means that he was stuck in the "pedal hard" gears and couldn't move to the "pedal easy" gears. This was significant because this course was HILLY! I heard him asking around at one of the stops if anyone knew how to fix his gears. They told him no, but he could put his bike in the SAG truck and be picked up. His answer was, " No, I'll ride the rest in high gear before I SAG back!" WOW!!!!!! What a tough human spirit! Overall, this was an EXCELLENT ride! I am disappointed that I didn't get my century ride complete, but I think that the life lessons that I took from all of these living with diabetes is worth my than anything that I could get from any other bike ride. And not to the numbers - Goals: This week: run- 16 bike - 42, swim 1/2. I will have to add the numbers up on the next blog.

Oh.. here are two new friends that I met on the ride.

TOMRV

This past weekend we did a two day bike ride totaling 116 miles! We started by camping in a small park on Friday night, there were no campfires with smores, but it was fun just the same. We rode our bikes from Preston, Iowa to Dubuque, Iowa. The photo above is the elevation map of the ride. It was VERY HILLY! There was one grand hill called, "The Wall." We did this ride two years ago and I skipped The Wall, so this year I went right for it! I am proud to say that I made it!! Saturday night spent the night in Dubuque and then rode back to Preston on Sunday. The ride home was DIFFICULT because most of the ride was either uphill or right into a strong wind. There were times when I found it difficult to keep my bike going in a straight line because of the wind. It was a great weekend! As always Tim took great care of me. He hauls all of our electrolyte and sodium needs. I'm a very lucky gal! I don't have any photos yet, so I'll do a blog with just photos. Tim got some good shots. Here are my numbers / goals: Run 37 miles - goal is 125. Bike 340 miles - goal is 1000. Swim 5 miles - goal is 25. P.S. The bottom and legs are still sore!

Crazy Busy!!

totals: run - 37, bike - 224, swim - 4.5 Goals are: run - 125, bike - 1000 swim- 25