Sunday, May 17, 2009

From a Parade to the Sox....

So Saturday was an incredible day both weather wise and activity wise...We started the day with the Annual Bremerton Armed Forces Day Parade. It is really amazing and awe-inspiring living in a community that has such admiration for our Armed Forces. Granted I have worked for the Armed Forces for the last 10+ years, however not all communities have the same reactions. Seeing survivors of Pearl Harbor and WWII come down our streets is humbling and rewarding...You cannot help but stand and pay your respect and say Thank you..

The weather on the other hand...ouch..literally..I again, havenot learned the simple pleasures of SUNBLOCK...Sure Vanessa asked if I wanted some...Sure I knew the sun was beating down on me...and once again I can say for the 34th straight summer.."I was building my base burn"....to which Vanessa so compassionately responded...."Ok Izzie" to which I answered "Hello Grandpa K, come on in...." You who watch Grey's will understand the sarcasm...If not...Oh well...

After the Parade, we headed home for a few hours of rest and relaxation before heading out to Seattle for a B-day party...We are looking forward to pics, so we will update the blog on that at a later time.

After the party we headed to the Red Sox v.s. Mariners game. This is our 2nd Mariner Season since arriving to the NW, and of course we always try to get in at least 1 Sox game when they come out here. Last year I was fortunate enough to get two games in, one of which I remember...This year, the Sox are only coming out once so our choices were limited. Yesterday we met up with our friends the Holloways for a Sox victory...It was Camden's 2nd MLB Game...Amazing, he has been to more games at 2 then I had been to by the time I was 21...This was Emma's 1st MLB Game.. She had been to a Japanese Professional Baseball Game, but never a MLB Game.

After the game we headed home, which can be brutal...Its about an hour and a half drive from Seattle back home...Why do I tell you this part..Because in the tradition of me attending the Red Sox games here in Washington...it has become routine that after every Sox game that I drive home from, I get PULLED OVER....yep, by the Cops...Fortunately he let me off...Says I was going fast and weaving...Asked me if I had been drinking..."Nope"..wanted to say.."Not since December"...Vanessa thinks we got off because when he flashed his light in the backseat he saw two kids fast asleep...I think so too...Enjoy the Pics...

Claire, Emma and Camden waiting for the Parade to begin..

Camden and I taking it all in...
Patriotism at a Young Age....
Not sure the Mariner Moose was happy to be surrounded by Red Sox Fans..HE was a good sport non-the less.

Daddy's little girl...
Camden taking it all in...HE had a rough start, but rallied from the 4th inning on..Including becoming good buddies with the Drunkards in front of us....hahahahah.
What a family, and what a view...
It has become tradition that anytime we are together with the Holloways that we take a picture of Vanessa and Maggie...Love this one...One of my favorites..Especially with the lights in the background..

Saturday, May 16, 2009

What constitutes a night at "the office"

So two years ago when I made the transformation to my healthier self, I stopped for the most part in having splurge kind of nights with food...I found my body not reacting well and spending half the night in "the office"...Well last night I made the mistake of splurging and boy did I pay...So what causes such a visit to the office:

Dinner:
2 Manwiches
Chips
Water
+
Later:
Movie Popcorn
Movie Lemonade(64+ Ounces)
+
Later, Later
Snickers Ice Cream Bar
4 Icee Thin Popsicles(Yep, those, the ones that cost like $5 for 6 million)
=
3 hours of pain....Lesson learned...and it is a good lesson...My body has changed...quit making it sick...

Friday, May 8, 2009

Being Safe....Being Smart....and Going to Do it...

So I went out on a 6 miler tonight and it dawned on me that I needed to be smarter with my running...Well maybe smarter is not the word...maybe wiser...I was lucky, fortunate, that I was able to recover so quickly from my knee infection. So in saying that, I have decided that instead of taking the risk and hurting myself and running the full marathon at the end of June, I will instead run the half-marathon. I feel that this will allow my body to continue to recover and not put it through the grueling longer runs, at least for now.

So all of you that know me well, know that I can never just do something, there has to be something more. So the something more for this race will be breaking my PR for the half and finishing under 2 hours. This will be tough, but I AM GOING TO DO IT!!!!

I know this decision is going to make my Mom happy, and in reality I think I am finally starting to listen to her, my dad and my brother...

As I push forward over the next two months, I cannot wait till June 27th when I cross the finish line in under 2 hours...

It has dawned on me recently that I do many of the things I do, because I want to set and example for my children....I want them to be able to look at their dad when they get older and say WOW, look what our Dad did...and then hopefully it will inspire them to set their own goals...

Finally, I could not possibly accomplish what I do or will without the support of a loving wife...I love her more than she will ever know....Thanks Babe...

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Who would have thunk it....

So all of you( maybe 4 or 5) that keep up with my blog, were well aware of the trials and tribulations of my knee injury/infection. If you are reading this blog for the first time, and have no clue what I am talking about, scroll down, catch up and return here later...

So two weeks+ had passed since my last "real" run...The 16 miler that preceeded the Knee infection...2+ weeks later, and a total of 3 miles running and I was headed to Vancouver, Canada with the family for a weekend of fun, relaxation and maybe, just maybe being able to run part of the Half-Marathon I had signed up for months ago.

We headed up Friday night, and arrived in Vancouver around 9:00 p.m. The kids were spun up after a few pieces of licorice and would not go to sleep...Was this a sign of things to come...Only if your name is Camden Lee...


Saturday we awoke and if you were to ask Vanessa I was not the cheeriest Cheerio in the bowl. We headed to Stanley Park, the Aquarium and The Kids Market before heading out for dinner. Dinner to say the least was unenjoyable...Camden threw a fit beyond fits and I wolfed down my Pasta supper with the hopes that maybe, just maybe I could run in the morning. These thoughts of running are what made me un-fun...The wondering if I could or couldn't run...Would my knee hold up, my lungs, my legs...Who knew...3 miles in two weeks...It had been months since I had run that little...

So Sunday morning I woke up at 5:00 a.m. and prepared for the run...Nip Guards, Glide, Socks, Shoes, I-Pod, Running Briefs, the whole gammut...and for the first time since I have started running in races, walked to the starting line...The main reason of course for doing this was to help Vanessa. This way the kids could sleep in and they could catch up with me later at the finish...That is if I was so fortunate to indeed finish..

Our hotel was less than two miles from the hotel, so it was a really nice walk...The sunrise was beautiful and it was neat to walk beside other runners as we walked to the race. I wondered what kind of stories they had...What brought them here...Had they fought injuries...

This was my view on the way to the race...Beautiful.
This is where the Opening Ceremonies of the Winter games are taking place. On my route to the race.

People starting to line up for the race...15,000 strong...Yikes..

The starting line...

I got to the finish line a half hour before the race...I turned on the Garmin watch and made sure it was set for KM's instead of miles...The race was in Canada...Love the metric system...Did not realize how much till the race began...

As I started stretching, I could not help but wonder what was going to happen over the next two+ hours...Would I make it a mile, 2 miles...or would I just collapse...That was my biggest fear...

Oh..I must mention, the day before at the Expo, I came across the medals for the finishers...and without a doubt I thought they were the coolest I had seen thus far in my race career...

Then it happened...The race began....The beginning was slow...What do you expect when there are 15,000 runners. This was perfect..It forced me to slow down...As the KM's passed I had no concept of how many miles I was running...Really I had no clue...but it sure seemed like it was going fast...21.1 KM's....that is not so bad...


The legs felt great, the body felt great, and HOLY @#$% the knee felt great...and I should know..I was looking down at it every KM...was it swelling, was it going to explode...Hell I had no clue...

So the first 10 KM were pretty uneventful...Yep thats right the first 10KM...I could not believe it myself...Then came the 14 KM mark...After an 8 minute stop at the potty...I know how long, because I stopped my timer....At this time I text messaged Vanessa and my Lil Brother Tim...Told them I only had 7 KM to go...and at that time it dawned on me...You are going to do it you SOB....

and I did....The last 7 are a pretty big blur, but I hurt when it was all said and done...Not my knee, but the rest of me...The parts of you that hurt after running normally...Just now they felt worse because it had been 2 weeks...2 weeks...2 weeks...I could not believe it...I did it...
Coming down the home stretch...Yes I was hurting a tad bit.
A little bit of a smile...hahahaha.
Almost there...

My biggest fan....

After finishing, and getting my super bad ass medal...it dawned on me...Marathon 1 of the year on June 27th was now within reach...Hell yeah....Oh and my time was 2:22 without counting the potty break...2:31 counting it...and counting the first bathroom break, which I forgot to mention...oops...So that was an average of over 11 minute miles...Not great...but my goal was not to be Flash...my goal was to finish...Enjoy the pics...
The bad ass medal...