Flirty and Forty

What do you get when you mix 6 great friends, 1500ml of Pinot Grigio, an afternoon at the spa, a raucous bar dice game of 7, 14, 21 and a huge surprise party? Well, in this case you get the celebration of Jenn's fortieth birthday. The day started at the Azana spa in Brookfield with mani's, pedis and a big jug of cheap wine drank out of Styrofoam cups. After polishing off the wine and drying our newly polished nails we headed to one Jenn's favorite neighborhood haunts, The Ugly Mug (I know, awesome name for a bar). Well what are a bunch of girls to do at 4:00 in the afternoon at the corner pub. Play bar dice, naturally. Needless to say, we all made Jenn drink most of the shots. Later that night we surprised Jenn with big surprise party that required a fairly elaborate ruse involving multiple people and even more white lies. Happy Birthday Jenn!

Unexpected inspiration and little victories

Earlier today, I headed over to the Petit Center to get a short training run in. When I arrived, the parking lot was packed. I assumed there was a big hockey or speed skating tournament I wasn't aware of. Actually, to my surprise, they were conducting an indoor 1/2 marathon with a full marathon to be held tomorrow. Since the track was closed to regular runners and walkers, I took a few minutes to watch the race. I'm feeling pretty inspired! The Petit Center is pretty inspiring already as hundreds of world class Olympic speed skaters, many from Wisconsin, have trained and competed there. Sometimes when I feel like I'm pulling a plow around that oval track, I look up to see a huge banner of Eric Heiden in that famous shiny yellow suit looking down. I can almost hear him saying "You can do this Mary....and, perhaps you might consider losing a bit of junk from your trunk?" As I was watching the competitors finished, I started doing the math. On the Petit track a 1/2 marathon is 48 laps. I confirmed with a fellow bystander that a full mile is 3 1/3 laps. I always thought it was 4! So, in the last few weeks, I've actually been running further than I thought. HOORAY! I know that's a pretty small thing, but in this larger war, I need to win every tiny battle I can.

Alleluia!

My Grandma Orley was a great lady and a devout Catholic. She believed in all the saints and their special causes but I think her favorite saint was Saint Anthony of Padua. He was the patron saint of lost and stolen articles. My grandma used to work at a factory where cardboard boxes were cut and assembled. Once, she lost the diamond from her wedding ring on the floor of the factory during one of her shifts. She prayed to St. Anthony and lo and behold, among all the piles of cardboard shavings and dirt, she located her diamond. A few months ago, also among a fair amount of dirt and chaos caused by my bathroom remodeling project, I lost my digital camera. Well, I looked everywhere and could not find it. So I said a little prayer to St. Tony hoping I hadn't used up all my locating "credits" throughout my life. Everyone knows that I'm a bit careless and tend to misplace things. Actually, the truth of the matter is that I tend to think I've lost things when in fact they are usually right under my nose at all times. Andrea always teases me about my 'lost' keys and cell phone, and 99 out of 100 times they are always in my purse. Well, earlier today in a major cleaning frenzy that involved the actual movement of furniture, I located my camera. It was under my dresser (where I had looked more than once) but tucked between the dresser and the bed frame at an angle just so as to be out of my sight line. Anyway, some doubters would say that wasn't St. Anthony as much as whoever the patron saint of clean and organized homes is. I'm sticking with the big A. I even mused to my family that perhaps if I prayed to him enough he would find me a husband. Of course, to that my family replied "Did you lose one?" Touche! So, look to future posts to includes some long lost photos.

I'm hooked

Darn you The Biggest Loser....why are you so compelling? Last Tuesday, I turned on the TV for a little background noise as I was cooking in the kitchen. The TV was tuned to NBC and the popular weight loss competition was on. In the past, I've resisted watching this show as I'm not a huge fan in general of reality based television. At first, I stayed a safe distance from the TV, occasionally looking up to catch a few moments. However as the contestants back stories unfolded and the teams took the long agonizing walk up to the scale to be weighed and judged by all for the first time, I quickly found myself glued to the couch and thoroughly engrossed. Initially, I was also one those people being judgey, thinking to myself "how could anyone let themselves get that big". But very quickly compassion took over and complete disclosure here, I found myself tearing up more than once. Man, those producers really know how set up the show to tug on your heartstrings. Losing weight is incredibly hard. Those of us who have struggled to lose even a few pounds know that. Some of these people are staring down the daunting prospect of losing 80, 100 or even 200+ lbs. So now, every Tuesday evening I will be tuning in to watch these brave folks journey toward a healthier and hopefully happier existence. And, perhaps I'll be able to pick up a few training and eating tips that will assist me with the 10-15 lbs. I'd like to lose in the next few months. The Biggest Loser is helping to run a contest where for every pound people pledge to lose, an 11 cent donation will be made to our food banks to help needy people. Check it out http://www.pfpchallenge.com/

Run Mary Run

I've decided to try to run the Green Bay 1/2 marathon in May and registered online earlier today. I wanted to write this post because if I didn't tell everyone then it might be a whole lot easier to back out. This is going to be a challenging one for me. I'm not built to run...In fact, the marathon website even has a name for someone in my weight range....Athena. I think this is supposed to make us bigger girls feel better for in Greek mythology Athena was the super bad ass goddess of war, civilization, wisdom, strength, strategy, crafts, justice and skill. I guess if I was going to be participating in a clean and jerk contest, fashioning together some sort of macrame plant hanger or sitting on jury duty this comparison would be fantastic. But for running, I'd much prefer to be more like the god Hermes, the winged-footed speedster who delivers all those bouquets for FTD florists, or the goddess of victory, Nike. She was so awesome that there is really tiny shoe company named after her. Everyone keeps telling me that the key to finishing a marathon is the training plan. You gotta stick to the plan. Russ sent me a 1/2 marathon training schedule and it's supposed to guarantee success if you follow it. I hope that's true. The longest I've ever run is about 6 miles and that was over 5 years ago. I will give this whole thing my very best effort and try to give an occasional training update. Hopefully on May 15th, 2011 at the finish line there will be a photo of me celebrating with my friends, enjoying a frosty beer and hopefully still standing.