Wedding Weekend

No, not my wedding. But my first wedding as an officiant (and probably my last). Here's the play by play:

Friday we had the rehearsal. It went very smooth. Obviously being an event planner made this part of the wedding easy for me. I am organized and I like bossing people around. Cool. Done. Piece of cake. The rehearsal dinner was super fun - lots of food, drinks and friends.

Saturday we slept in, then got ready for the wedding. I was not nervous at all, everything was rolling along smoothly. THEN the bride starts walking down the aisle with her parents. All of a sudden, I get that silly, girly, sore throat, I'm gonna cry - thing. And all of a sudden, they are in front of me. I know the words to say, but had notes just in case- THANK goodness!

I look down at my hands and they were shaking worse than I have ever seen any shake. I could not get them to stop shaking! We got through the wedding with only one or two mishaps, which turned out to be pretty funny in the end. I said something about putting the ring on the "bride of the finger." But everyone laughed and it was fine. It was finally over and I was sooooo relieved. We took some amazing pics on the beach - I will post some once I get them.

Then it was party time! The Captain was the best man and he was pretty nervous about his speech, but he did great. Had everyone laughing. Then the dancing started. Man I love weddings, especially after the hard stuff is over.

NOT that I ever want to have one, but going to other people's is really fun.

Weekend Quiz

Watch this little clip and take a little quiz...



What will P.O.M. being doing this weekend?
A. Getting Married
B. Drinking copious amounts of wine and watch Friends DVD box set.
C. Performing a wedding
D. Running a marathon

If P.O.M. had to take a date somewhere, who would it be?
A. The Aggressor
B. The Captain
C. Her sister because she's sworn off men.

Next on the Agenda

Thanks for all your kind words yesterday. I'm feeling more like myself. I got to bed early (the wine helped) and actually slept! Then I woke up early and got my run in! Yeah. I need my routine. My routine is #2 but it keeps me semi-sane. (And Jess, blogging is also #2 for me.)

So I'm back peeps.

I also picked my next race...

Surf City Half Marathon!!!

This will be my 3rd year running it, which makes me a Legacy Runner.

How flippin' sweet is that?

Also, some coolio peeps will be running it!!!

• My aunt - her first half marathon EVAH!
• My friend Dr. Dev.
• Miss Vivarella - Like I think she is running it but like she hasn't posted much about it lately. But since I'm saying it on my blog - it must be true. Like no turning back now, for sure, totally!
• The Chic Runner
• WHO ELSE??????? Come on peeps - they have a killer BEER tent after party.

I am going to try to get a couple more girlfriends to run it, but we shall see. The ONLY downside is that I won't be in my tip top training mode. I have a 2 week long business trip out of the country in January. I will be 100% responsible for a 600+ person/2 week event. I don't see much time for training over those 2 weeks. BUT I will run it anyways and just hope "less is more" strategy works again.

Song of the Day: Beautiful World by Rage Against the Machine

Urgent But Not Important

I was reading an article recently and I WISH I ripped it out. But I didn't. It's about a Stephen Covey concept - you know the guy? Mr. Seven Habits guy... I'm not a big ol' fan of him or anything, but this article just stuck with me.

You life events can be separated into 4 categories:

1. Urgent/Important - daily things you do like feed your kids, eat, pay bills, etc.
2. Not Urgent/Important - these are things that enrich your life - reading a good book, talking a walk, going on a jog, chatting with an old friend, exercising, trying new things, visiting family, etc.
3. Urgent/Not Important - returning emails, answering phone calls, work dinners, stupid commitments, demands being made on you that you that have no real value, etc.
4. Not Urgent/Not Important - who really cares?

Well, I've been stuck in the "Urgent/Not Important" category for so long that I can barely tell the difference between important and not important.

Seriously, how do I get myself out of this spin cycle? If I can learn to focus on the important only, I know I would be so much happier.

I'm always afraid that if I don't give the attention to the "Urgent/Not Important" that the world will come crumbling down around me.

Anyone else ever feel like this?
Anyone else drinking wine tonight?

(PS: I haven't run since my horrible run on Saturday)

Foto Flop

Once again, I take the WORST race photos evah!

I swear I should teach a class on this:

Foto Flop 101: How to run past a photographer and NOT get your pic taken.

Foto Flop 110: How to look like a tool running

Foto Flop 120: Odd Faces and hand gestures.
Please note this is an advanced course. F.F. 101 and 110 are a prerequisite.

I'm only posting these because they are the best. The others... not so much. I had to block out certain bits and pieces for the sake of the children.

Song of the Day: Love Lockdown by Kanye West

Do You Know What You're Eating?

Recently The Governator signed a bill requiring restaurants to list nutritional content of menu items.

Personally, I LOVE this idea. Just today, I was craving a Bonzai Bowl from Wahoos (black beans, rice, veggies & chicken). I thought this was a healthy option. BUT my friends, I discovered online that this bowl has OVER 1000 calories. For lunch? No thank you sir.

So I changed my mind.

And that's a GOOD THING!

With the obesity rates sky rocketing, we all need to be aware of what we are putting in our bodies. And restaurants have tricky little ways of adding way more calories into dishes than we think.

So I'm all for this. It can even be just a little, discreet number on the menu.

How do you guys feel about this?
Would you change your eating habits or menu selections?

Last: I am totally addicted to The Impossible Quiz. It makes no sense, but it's like crack.

Pre-Race Pics

You might notice from my side bar that I have not run yet. I really tried to wake up this morning, but it just didn't happen. So for now I will revel in my post marathon bliss and share some photos. This is just the beginning (and my FIRST slide show).

Hopefully the race course photos will post soon - because you KNOW my horrbile history with those. There are bound to be a few laughs.
ENJOY!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Portland In Review

Over the past few days there have been so many things that make me think "oh, I need to remember to blog about that." In typical POM fashion, I sit in front of my computer not knowing where to start. As Frauline Maria would say, "Start at the very beginning. It's a very good place to start."


Thursday - My Denver Gal Pal and I met up, checked into our weird hotel and had lunch (1 bottle of wine down, for those counting). Then we shopped it up as only we know how. On our way back to hotel, we picked up mas vino to "get ready" (2 down). It was her bday so we went to a fun restaurant called "OBA" in the Pearl District (3rd bottle down). Then it was time for the blogger meet up. I was a bit nervous, but knew we would have fun. Plus with 1.5 bottles of wine in my system, nerves were not an issue. I am waiting for my gal pal to send the pics, but the meet up was Gazelle, Junk Miles, Alisa, Jen, HTC, and Carrie. I think I had 2 martinis. What happens at a blogger meet up, stays at a blogger meet up. That is all. (Queue barf-o-rama here.)



Friday-Saturday - Rest, eat, sleep, rest, sight see, rest. We went to the Expo on Saturday. I love expos. Running + Shopping = My dream day. But I have to say I was a bit disappointed in the expo. Not enough snacky food samples, small, crowded and kinda boring. The Long Beach expo was at the Convention Center and was just huge. I guess I was expecting the same thing. The only memorable part was a creepy experience. As we were walking out of the hotel this guy comes running after me. Apparently my girls noticed that he had been following us since we arrived. He asked if I was running the marathon. (Uhm, that seems quite obvious with the big green "Portland Marathon" bag I was holding as I was walking out of the marathon expo... just saying). I said, "yes, I am." Then he said that I was the most beautiful girl he has ever seen, but I probably have a boyfriend. Then he ran off. Literally. Something you might expect from a 11 yr old, but a 40+ makes it funny. Poor guy, obviously he doesn't get out much.


Sunday - Marathon DAY!!!


We woke up bright and early, ate some toast, peanut butter, banana, cereal and an apple. We got down to the race with about 45 mins to use the awesome porto-potties (my least favorite thing in the universe), drop off our stuff and get to the starting line. All my girls run at different paces, so we decided to line up somewhere in the middle. They knew my 4 hour goal and we talked about not running together once the gun goes off. We squeezed our way to the 4:45 pace group. But right at the last minute, I told him I was going to try to get closer. I managed to get to the 4:30 pace group, but luckly I was at the front of it.


And we're off. The weather (at this point) was nice and I think I block out my surroundings when I run. I remember staring at my Garmin thinking I was on pace. I also remember trying to remind myself to ENJOY THE MOMENT and LOOK AROUND. There were some nice views - lots of sexy runner man legs and some hotties (that I passed!) I think around mile 4 or so, it started raining. I was really cold. I mean REALLY cold. Once I post some pics, I'm sure you will be able to tell how cold I was... if you know what I mean. The muscles in my legs started to cramp. The race had a lot more hills then I was expecting. The rain got worse and didn't let up until the end.

I quickly caught up with the 4 hour pace group. It was a big group and annoying to run with. I don't like running with lots of people, plus I felt like they were slowing me down, so I kept my earlier pace and passed them. REPEAT: I passed the 4 hour group! I knew if I could just keep them BEHIND me, I was good to go. Mile 17 kicked my ass (huge hill). But then I saw Gazelle and Alisa around 18! I yelled "I'm sub 4!" I felt strong again. Alisa took a pic ~ In typical POM fashion, I have my hands up and a weird face. Let's all say a little prayer that the rest of my pictures are "normal." To be honest, a couple times I did have to throw up the JAZZ hands, for pure blogger entertainment purposes.

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Then it gets weird up in herre. Somewhere in the middle of the race, I started doing some math in my head. You know the math - if I run at X pace for Y minutes, then I can finish in XY time. Mid-race, I got it my silly little head that maybe I could qualify for Boston. Now, let me tell ya - BOSTON has never been a dream of mine. I don't really care about it to be honest. I would rather run NY or some other country. But the ability to say "I QUALIFIED for Boston" seems really, really cool. Now this is in my head and I'm trying to haul ass.

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Mile 20 hits me. Literally. Mile 2o sucked. My legs were so tight and sore and cold. I tried to think Bikram thoughts, but that didn't work. I remember some guy in red telling me to relax my shoulders and push my hips forward. I remember thinking "F*&% off Red Shirt Guy." I tried to get back to my happy place and stay focused and positive. It was hard. My thoughts were slipping to how much this hurt. My training runs never hurt like this, then again, I train on super-flat ground and in warmer weather. At mile 22, I realized that Boston was a SHORT LIVED PIPE DREAM(like 45 minutes short lived).

Not sure why I was so emotional, but I burst into tears on the course at mile 22. Yes, I cried. Then I couldn't breath. But I kept running. I was doing some weird maternity breath thing trying to get my head back to a normal place and stop crying.
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Luckily, I saw 3 studly guys in front of me. This is when I decided to start picking people off. I had 4 more miles and those guys were NOT going to beat me. For some reason I take great satisfaction beating men, especially fit ones. Then I saw a big booty skirt girl - no way was she going to beat me. Then I saw something really gross that I can't bare to blog about it. I definately couldn't let this girl beat me. My little head game got me through to mile 25.
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I knew I was be sub 4 and was relived. I was honestly worried about not making my goal and having to tell you all that I failed. I crossed the finish line and realized I didn't have anyone waiting for me. I knew this before I started, obviously. But it hit me hard when I was finished. Here I am - done with the marathon, completely alone, emotional and freezing. I burst into tears again. But these tears wouldn't stop. I was hyperventilating and totally out of it. I grabbed a chocolate milk and banana. There was nowhere to just lounge around - a big lawn - nothing. So I sat on the curb, caught my breath, tried to stretch, took a pic, then went to the sidelines to wait for my girls. I wished the Captain was there.
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Overall, the race had goods and bads. The adorable Chiarunner has a better detailed report about the race... the homeless, the hills, etc. I love the city of Portland, but not sure I could deal with the gloomy skies and so much rain.
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I'm proud of my time.
I'm sore as hell.
I'm happy to be done training (for a while at least).

Pics to follow.

Well, She Did It!

Heading out of town again today for business, but thought I might share this little tidbit with ya'll.....

I DID IT!!!! SUB FOUR HOURS!

Full race report later this week. Thank you all for all your support ~ especially those sassy ladies that waited out in the rain to watch me run by.

Portland Marathon Blogger Meet Up

I am so MIA these days. I did not go AWOL on ya'll. Just busy at work. Real busy.

Thank God I'm tapering and not having to run much. I have cut out all YOGA. Although I'm sad as hell about this, the rib problem I mentioned a few blogs back has not gone away. I did Yoga last Fri and paid for it all weekend.

So, one or two more little runs and then it is marathon time.
I guess I need to think about packing and all that. Argh!

ALLS I know for sure (I hate when people say "alls') is that Thursday night is ...
MARTINI MEET UP
7:30 pm
The Vault
Be there or be square. Girls.... you in?
Please no psychos or crazies.

We're going to the Expo on Friday afternoon.

Thank you so much for all your support. Not sure when I'll be able to blog again, as my life is spiraling out of control and my internet is down at home.

Peace out skillets.