RAIN FINALLY

We finally got some rain today! That was after spending the day with zero water pressure. We did receive a note from ICE the corporation that owns all phone, water, electric and who knows what else for the whole country of Costa Rica. They told us that we are 35% low on water for this time of year and we would start rationing soon!

When we moved to Costa Rica from Arizona a big reason was to be near water. Now we are running low on water. All we can hope for is that this will be the wettest October in history. Although we just saw on the news this rain is actually just a front blowing through and not actual rainy season rains. What that means is it will not last as long or be as hard as seasonal rains.

On my morning run this morning it was sooo hot I felt like I was running my marathon again. I mean to say it was freakin hot. I almost stopped because I realized that I did not have to do this. I am not training for anything, I was not racing, in other words there was no reason to be out there suffering so.

I have headed back to the gym and had forgotten how much easier spinning and lifting are. But nothing burns the calories like running, or gives you that runners high!

LISTS

I am so ready to get moving and get to the beach! Mostly ready to run the hard earned marathon. We feel ready and have done the training necessary, now we just pray and keep our fingers crossed that the old body will cooperate and kick in when necessary. Which would be the whole 26.2 miles of course.

Since I am a little bored and a lot anxious I have reverted to my old self and started making lists. I have our food list, complete with menu for the whole trip. I have my clothing list, which should be simple, running shoes, socks, shorts, shirt and hat. I just like making lists. I also have the massage list since we have a couple of graduates working for donations at the marathon.

I really don't remember when I became obsessed with lists. Probably when I was a teen and they gave us long lists for camp etc. I really dug having everything written out for me telling me what to do, bring, prepare, etc. Took all the thinking out of it and just let me be really obsessive compulsive!

After moving to Costa Rica I decided to do away with lists. I need to exercise my brain and try to actually remember things and think about them. That is fine until I get nervous or excited, at which time I need the thrill of the list to get me going!
co

COSTA RICA RAINY SEASON

I know I have blogged about this before, but I really can't get over this wet season. This is our third wet season, and I can't even call it wet. After our first year here we all voted and decided we would always leave for the month of October. It is notoriously the wettest of the wet months. Now here we are with no rain. Once in awhile some mists, but no big rainfall. In fact we have only gotten caught in the rain one time this year. Even with running and training for the marathon, only once in the rain.

This is a great thing right now. In a few months it will be a real drag. In other words we will be having rolling blackouts all dry season. What this means is they will decide what hours they want to black out the whole darn country and blink, everything goes out. Of course they don't do it during the day when you actually have light. Oh no they do it in the night when you really need the light. In fact they don't even do it in the middle of the night when people are sleeping. They usually do it when everyone is just starting dinner.

More than once my son would bring dinner to his friends house. We had a little gas stove the first year we were her, so when electric went out, we could still cook. We were going to get a 7% break on our electric, which has doubled in the past two years, but ICE decided they really could not afford that!

We spend about $45.00 a month on electric. I know this sounds cheap to those of you who pay heating or cooling bills, but consider this. We have no hot water, just on demand heaters on the showers. We have no dishwasher, no drier and no heating or cooling. When you consider all that doesn't that sound a little high?

GOAL REACHED !!!!

Yahoo! Finally got into the 130's. When Rebekah and I started training for our marathon two months ago my goal was to get into the 130's by the time we did not marathon. I am so excited to finally get down there. I have not seen this weight since I did my iron man 7 years ago, and did not expect to get there again.

Now I know the key. Run 35 miles a week and don't eat junk food or sweets. The last part was forced not by choice by the way. We have been trying to tighten our belts and cut out the junk and "non-nutritive" foods. That seems to work, unfortunately.

The good news is I have been working on cookies all day. My son wants to introduce our cookies to the neighborhood, so we made some to sell over the weekend and see how they were received. The bad news is chocolate chips are now $4.00 a bag now, holy heck I guess I will keep losing weight. May be in the 120's by the time our race day gets here in four weeks.

SURROGATE MOM

O.K. just when I think my kids have come up with everything one of them gets me. I never saw this one comming as my daughter never said anything about it. She had mentioned that she thought the moms that did it were champs, but other than that she never said a word about wanting to be a surrogate mom.

About two weeks ago she told me that she had been in contact via email with a couple in Austria about being their surrogate. My first response was no way you can't do this. I was of course thinking of all the ways she could get hurt or ripped off, etc.

Once we talked more about it and I saw where she was comming from I felt a little better. Since I have a friend considering surrogacy I was especially excited for her, once I got over the shock. Most people just respond by telling her she is crazy.

I think it is a nice way to make money and help out a couple that have been trying to have a baby for eight years with no success. We will see how it goes and definately keep you posted on the progress. She is hoping to be p.g. by Oct. so it will be as soon as we finish our marathon!

BUSHED

This is what a sleepover will do to you. My daughter had baby over for a sleepover on Fiday night and this is her Sat. night. She ended up playing with the nephew instead of niece, she crashed before the party even began! You can check out pics of the great sleepover party at my daughters web site.

The real thing is that I can relate to this pic. Today we finally did the long run we were supposed to do on Sat. We had to change our long run days around due to work hours. So we ran 16 miles this morning. I can't and don't even want to move a muscle. I am bushed. It would not be so bad if it did not take us so stinkin long to run that far.

We ran as long as it takes really fast people to finish a whole marathon. Actually not even really fast people, just kind of fast people. The good thing is we did it and only have four more long runs until the big day, cool beans. Now I am going to start eating my way through my house and try to recover.

HALF WAY

Woo hoo we ran our 12 miler today. Boy am I bushed. Rebekah was all bright eyed and bushy tailed though, so I guess age shows here. I just keep dreading having to get up and do anything. I would really just like to find a station that was showing the Tour and watch other people work out all afternoon.

So we are about seven weeks out from our marathon at this point and I am thinking it is going to hurt, again. I just don't know how to train so that a marathon is not painful, maybe not train and just hurt really bad for one day instead of four months?

At any rate we are training and moving right along. Rebekah wakes up at 4:30 a.m. every day to do her training. I shoot for 7:00 a.m. That is a little more doable. Todays run was a little tough because I could not get my visor to stay on. My dread head is getting too darn big for my visor and I wore a do rag instead, burnt face for sure.

At my age I don't need to be getting my face burnt and getting anymore sun damage. I don't want to look like the wrinkly old ladies we see at the beach. More moisturizer I guess! Oh and maybe a little sunscreen would not be a bad idea.

NO RAIN

I absolutely love June in Costa Rica. It is just the perfect amount of hot sunshine and rain to keep everyone happy. We had a great long run on Sat. with a nice cloud cover and a few drizzles, perfect run for sure. We also discovered that if you run during a soccer game there is much less traffic on the roads, woo hoo.

I did go to the tamarindomarathon.com site and saw that we will not be the slowest ones in the race, according to the results from last year. I also will not be the oldest woman there, just the second to the oldest. Oh well makes for a good excuse.

The really good news is that I have already lost 5lbs and hopefully will be able to take off another 10 before the race. I just want to try my ideal weight for awhile and see if it is worth the trouble. Like if I really like it enough to maintain it or not. Just want to try it on for size and see how it feels. The last time I was there was when I did my ironman a few years ago. That surely was not worth it!

MUCH NEEDED MASSAGE

I always laugh when my clients come in and say "wow I did not know I was so tight in there!" Today was my turn to make the same comment. Man I did not know I was really carrying the whole world on my shoulders, but they sure felt that way.
Our massage program includes one instructor massage trade and today I received a massage from our student. Not to brag but he is a really good therapist as they have all been. Like I said though I was amazed at how tight I was in my shoulders. I don't know why I was amazed, hours of hours on the computer. Not to mention phone calls to the jail today and emails from lawyer. Yeah I guess it all adds up.
The surprising thing was that my legs felt pretty good. Of course we are just at the 20 mile a week running level and they usually feel pretty good until we go over that. Next week our marathon training will go over 20 miles for the week and that will be a whole new story.
Good thing I have a great hubby who is always up for a massage trade. I will probably need a few between now and May when we do the first marathon in Punteranus, Costa Rica. The next one will be right around the corner and it will be in Tamarindo Costa Rica.
We are both getting excited to finally get a marathon in. The last one was the Cow Town in Ft. Worth Texas about six years ago. I would say it is past time for another marathon.

MARATHON TRAINING

This is the track that I run on most days. Some days I hit the streets, but usually, just because I can track my distance I run on this here track. The school is right across the street so easy peasy to drop off the baby and go for my run. She has to be there at seven am on Mon, Wed, and Fri. so that allows me time to run about an hour before I have to be to the school to teach.
Rebekah and I have decided on two marathons in the near future to train for. The first one is in Punteranas and looks pretty hilly. The sad part is it is only a few weeks away. We will have to really hit it to be ready. That one will be our training race.
The biggy is in August. There is acutally prize money for that race. Now here is the good part. Last year there was no one in my age group, that makes me a shoe in right? Like I always say, pick your races. That one is in Tamarindo and will probably be pretty warm. We are used to our cooler climate here in the mountains so the change will be a little rough.
So today I ran four miles and will do the same tomorrow. Then we have a 5k at race pace, which for me is the same pace that I always run, slow. I only have one speed unfortunately. Then of course on Sat. will be our long fun of seven miles. I am ready to do this again and excited to finally find something to train for. Now we just have to figure out where to register and when and we will be all set.