Over the Edge for Special Olympics!

When they first approached me at work to do this I thought it sounded great but that with Ironman training in full effect this season I should wait until next year to do it.  Then they said they would do the fundraising for me so I thought sure why not.  I posted the page and let them know it was up and ready to go.  Then unfortunately they had to come back and tell me it was against policy to help with outside fund raisers and couldn't sponsor me.  In the mean time I had already committed to the organization and had my 1st donation.  So I didn't want to back out now!  So I'm on my own with limited time but I will give it my all and try my best to do the event and fundraising!



What is the event you ask?
Overcome a challenge in your life so Special Olympics athletes can overcome the challenges in theirs. Looking for an adventure of a lifetime that will also change the world for the better? Well look no further!  Watch our video!!

HUB International and SONM presents the 4th annual "Over the Edge" event. Join dozens of fellow thrill seekers as they go “Over the Edge” of a 16-story building in downtown ABQ, all to improve the lives of people with intellectual disabilities and their families.

My Story

After hearing Randy Mascarello and Tim Harris from Special Olympics New Mexico (SONM), speak at the 2012 SHRM New Mexico Conference, I was inspired and wanted to show my support for Special Olympics.


“Oh Yeah!” Tim prompted the entire room at the conference to yell this out every time he did to celebrate each accomplishment he spoke to us about. As we heard him recount his participation in the Special Olympics and I saw him beam with excitement, I found myself joining in “Oh Yeah!”

Starting at 8 years old running my 1st mile race up through my first Ironman Triathlon finish a few years ago, sports has taught me lessons that I have carried with me throughout my life. When asked “Why do you do endurance sports?” by people who look at me like I’m crazy, I usually answer “I do it because I can, and I think of those who can’t.” One of my favorite quotes is “You can quit and no one will care, but you will always know.”


The look in Tim’s eyes told me that Special Olympics meant to him as much as my Ironman finish has meant to me. Repelling off a tall building sounds scary and challenging, but it’s a challenge I would love to take it on to help others be able to know what it feels like to be part of something special and to build the confidence in those athletes that compete in these events. If just one more Special Olympics Athlete gets to yell “Oh Yeah” and beam with pride, then I am all in.

Any help is greatly appreciated please help me spread the word!  Thanks in advance! Please visit my Personal Fundraising Page. I am proud to be an athlete and to do what I can to help others participate in sports.


Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to make a contribution to our fundraising efforts.


Many thanks for your support -- and don't forget to forward this to anyone who you think might want to donate too!

Race Recap Holloman Duathlon

Captain America (in guiness book of world records for most multy sport races entered and my dad)

We finally have results!!!  5k run 30k bike both fairly flat a little bit of wind on the bike on the way back and a little hot out but overall awesome! Although they didn't give us splits even though we wore a chip :-(  I wanted to see my dad's bike split because he had to have been seriously FLYING on the bike, if you notice overall he wasn't that far behind me!  I'm so proud of him.  This was a small race not many people entered so I warned him the next one will be tougher but his finish was very strong considering what he's gone through to get here!!  He still hasn't received his T-shirt and they didn't give him a medal they didn't realize he was 1st in his AG!!

My dad after the race telling my mom "I'm BAAAACCCKK!!)

Jerry 60‐64 M 1.27:58
Carol 60‐64 M 2.04:18
Scott 60‐64 M 3.07:12

His super fast bike...

I got 2nd OV & 2nd AG but there were not very many females in this one I think there were only 16 F!!!  I was happy with my run I improved and strong on my bike but I KNOW I can improve more on my bike it's where I usually make up time.  The 1 F beat me on the run, she was about 3 mins ahead of me on the run and we finished 1 min apart.

Shannon 30‐34 F 1.25:48

Natasha 30‐34 F 1.26:56

Gloria 30‐34 F 1.27:12
Sarah 30‐34 F 1.36:57
Bianca 30‐34 F 1.47:01







I did a pre and post race interview with my dad!  After watching the 1st one you'll understand in our family when we say "You just told a Dad joke!"  why it's usually in a sarcastic tone!  :-)

 

Then a couple of days after we went to see Tom Petty in concert to celebrate!!   I had given my dad tickets for his birthday!  HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

Poop Everywhere!!!

So while I wait for official results from this weekend's race to post a recap I'll give you this little fiasco story about my ride to the race.  This race is really close to where my parents live and I drove up the night before to stay with my dad so we could go to the race together.  Well, here is the dilemma 3.5 hours in a car with a dog who has SEVERE anxiety about being in a car.  We've tried it all, in a crate covered and uncovered, harnessed, being held down by a human (it takes my entire body weight to try and hold her down.  My neighbors that watch her are gone and I didn't want to leave her in a kennel sooooo this time I tried harnessed in the very back after taking her for a walk and feeding her 4 puppy downer pills and this was the worst car trip with her yet!!!

Why? you ask?  Well the title might give you a little hint but before I get to that let me explain her triggers.  If there is a car coming in the opposite direction of us on a 2 lane road she will bark, lunge and bite at the car and if there are orange barrels for road construction same reaction.  So the 1st hour wasn't so bad on the 4 lane highway until we got to the construction zone then the last 2.5 hours was 2 lane high way with some  road construction.  So to deal with this I want you to notice in this picture what I resorted to:

Yes, those are earplugs in my ears and yes, that is the demon in the background!

And just to give you a little taste of what it's like being in the car with her here is some proof:

Now that is not the worst part!  We were almost to our destination thankfully but all of a sudden there was a strong smell in the car!  No she did not just let gas she actually POOPED in the car!!!  Now remember she was harnessed back there so other then lying down or moving from side to side in the back she couldn't go anywhere.  She freaked out because she didn't want to be anywhere near her own poop and decided that frantically jumping up and down and back and forth was the solution.  So as I desperately looked for a place to pull over she managed to spread poop all over the carpet, back of the seat, and plastic!  Then I opened the back door where she bolted to poop some more, cars were honking at me, and I was trying to scrape as much poop into a plastic bag with napkins.  Then she jumped all over me with her poop covered paws and refused to get into the back of the car again.  So the last 20 minutes I had to ride with her int he front seat next to me spreading more poop!  Instead of visualizing my finish that night I was cleaning a car full of poop!  Have I said poop enough times?  Well one more time she pooped again as soon as she got inside my parents house!!  My dad was a very good sport about all of this and I'm glad my mom wasn't around to witness this, please don't read this mom :-)

What is your worst dog story?  I love my doggie but think it's safe to say I will have to kennel her from now on or not travel!  :-(  Full race recap coming in a day or two I'm so proud of my dad!

Winner, winner! and Go DAD!

Let's get this weekend started off right with a winner!

 I used Random.org to generate a random number and the winner of the awesome technical hoodie is:

Maggie MagMileRunner!!!  Send me an e-mail or message me on FB with your address and which size and color you want on the technical hoodie!  Congratulations!  A special thanks again to Running Chics 

Also the giveaways don't stop there so don't be a stranger.  Actually don't be a stranger even once the giveaways stop :-)  I love getting comments from fellow athletes and support!   Happy Friday!!

Go Dad!

I am very excited and nervous for this weekend!  My dad and I have a sprint duathlon race near where he lives.  It is our 1st father/daughter race that we are participating in together and it is his 1st race in over 20 years.  It is also our 1st step towards our long 7 month training journey to the Ironman.  This will be an indicator of how much work we have ahead of us.  He's the one that 1st got me into the whole triathlon scene back in the day with Ironkids when I was 11 and now he's been inspired by me to get back into shape and get back in to triathlons.  Not many people start as ambitious as an Ironman right off the bat but I am there to support him every step of the way!  I will post a race recap next week to let you know how it all went.  Here's to a good race and weekend!

Adventures in commuting

As I went to work this morning on my commuter bike I felt like this (it's all donwhill to work):

Then on the way back home after work I felt like this (it's all uphill and hotter on the way home):

Once I got home and remembered it was a recovery week and that meant my workout was over for the day I felt like this:

Once I got inside and put my toys away I wanted to do this:

So here is what I looked like today on my ride home minus the bike:

 Well I GARUNTEE if you saw that coming towards you the 1st instinct would not be to whistle, offer to call 911 maybe or call the fashion police even better.   But for the poor soul who thought that was whistle worthy may I suggest that you get out more.  I mean come on it's not like I was wearing this:

Happy Cycling!!!

Photos, races and more! aka weekend boredom...

I made this a three day weekend for myself and it was AWESOME!!  Of course I didn't get everything done that I wanted to but I needed a little break from work.  Do you get offended by the fact that sometimes you work all week just to spend the weekend running errands and getting ready for the next week?  How is that a break?  No, just me?  Ok   So the good news is that the sprinkler guy came over but apparently I fixed it myself as I was messing with it right before he showed up!

After I got boring errands out of the way I went and took some photos of my awesome running buddy:

I put the rest of the photos from this on my NA Photography Page.  (btw does anyone know of a better way to put photos on blogger it would be awesome if I could do albums on a page)

















Then Lexi got jealous so I had to let her have her own photo shoot:

In case you haven't noticed I shouldn't be allowed to have too much time off!  I did a ton of scrap booking (so not like me)  I also volunteered at the World's Toughest 10k and got to cheer a bunch of my awesome DM friends to the finish.  It was a point to point all uphill course and colder than normal (high 30s if you don't count the windchill) and unfortunately the shuttles never showed up!  Luckily we all banned together and helped carpool everyone back!  I also got a few run and bike sessions in myself.  I have a sprint duathlon coming up next weekend just to test out my race legs and it's really small race so shouldn't be intimidating at all.  It will be my dad's 1st race in probably over 20 years!!  He might have to walk some of the 5k but I know he will still do amazing!  I can't wait to do the race report on that one!  The best part of the weekend is that I got to Skype with hubs A LOT this weekend so we took full advantage while we could!  Happy Running!

What's your favorite weekend pass time when you just need to veg?

Workout Playlist

So this has been the hardest post to type because when I copied this stinkin playlist from my iTunes to here it thinks it now has full control of my computer  I am losing my mind!


Ok 2 hours later I figuredout the issues my wireless keyboard crapped out and I figured that out no thanks to Microsoft help, they wouldn't provide technical support because I couldn't read the product number off the back of the keyboard, thankfully I remembered I had another keyboard in the closet! 

It's kind of funny cause I took today off as a "mental health" day and it's turning into a true Friday the 13th kind of day with a slight mental break down and all.  Anyway I'm going to upload my new playlist and hit the pavement workout all this anx with some running shoes and proceed to recover!  I noticed this new play list has a lot more hard rock/punk than others but I guess it's the mood I'm in.

• 'Till I Collapse/  Eminem & Nate Dogg
• All My Life/ Foo Fighters Foo Fighters  
• This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like I'm On This Song/ System of a Down
• F The System/ System Of A Down
• Snake Charmer/  Rage Against the Machine
• People Of The Sun/  Rage Against the Machine
• Faith / Limp Bizkit
• N 2 Gether Now/ Limp Bizkit
• Rock the Beat/LMFAO
• Sexy and I Know It/LMFAO
• Shots/LMFAO & Lil Jon 
• Name Of The Game/The Crystal Method 
• The Distance/ Cake
• Set It Off/Shuvel 
• Just a Friend/Biz Markie 
• Pee In The Shower/Guttermouth 
• She's Got The Look/Guttermouth 
• Krazy (feat. Lil Jon)/Pitbull Krazy (feat. Lil Jon)
• Where Is Everybody/ Nine Inch Nails 
• On Edge/Authority Zero 
• Drunken Sailor/Authority Zero
• Loser/Beck 
• Are You Gonna Be My Girl/ Jet 
• Cold Hard B/Jet 
• Lit Up/Buckcherry 
• Say Anything/Bouncing Souls   
• Girl All The Bad Guys Want/ Bowling For Soup 
• Cat Like Thief /Boxcar Racer 
• Bleed American /Jmmy Eat World 
• Automatic/Lagwagon 
• Famous For Nothing/ Dropkick Murphys 
• Inside Out/Eve 6 Eve 6 
• Welcome To The Fold/Filter 
• She Don't Use Jelly/ The Flaming Lips 
• The Seven Deadly Sins/ Flogging Molly 
• Bouncing Off The Walls/ Sugarcult 
• Fall Back Down/Rancid 
• Ruby Soho/ Rancid 

This is all I've been watching this week to stay motivated!  Ok I know a lot of us have pushed the puke threshold while running but how many have puked while riding your bike?!??
What is your favorite workout song?

p.s. One more week til the giveaway is over!

Spicy Chickpeas and Creamy Peas

As requested here are two recipes for some recent dishes I've cooked.  Chickpeas (garbanzo beans) are very high in protein!  I made some brown rice as a side with this.


Spicy Curry Chickpeas

Chickpeas (you can used can if you don’t want to cook these from scratch)
Onion (about ½ diced)
Garlic (2 cloves diced or pressed)
Green Chile (diced, to taste I used 2)
1 tsp Turmeric
1tsp Cumin
1 tsp Coriander seeds (mashed)
1 tsp Garam Masala
Salt and pepper to taste
Tomatoes (peeled & diced about 8 oz or to taste can use canned if want)
1 tblsp olive oil

Soak about 16 oz chickpeas overnight in water
Boil chickpeas for about 10 minutes then reduce to simmer and cook for another hour or until soft (or use canned)
Boil and peel tomatoes before dicing (or use canned)
In a separate pan sauté onions, garlic, all spices except garam masala, green chile for about 5 minutes
Add tomatoes and let simmer for about another 5 minutes (at this stage I added about ½ cup water but that is up to you if you want it a little more like a sauce)
Add Chickpeas and garam masala and cook for about another 5 minutes
Serve garnished with red onions and a side of brown rice

Creamy Peas

About 16 oz. peas (frozen or if fresh 16 oz. after taken out of pods)
8 oz. pearl onions (peeled)
Fresh parsley (chopped fine)
1 tbsp. olive oil or Earth Balance
¼ cup water
½  cup heavy cream or unsweetened soy milk
2 tbsp. flour
½ lemon
dd
Sautee the onions until browned
Boil the pea, and parsley in water for about 10 minutes
Add onions to peas
Mix the flour and cream/soy milk in a measuring cup until flour is dissolved
Lower heat on peas and add milk mixture and heat through (be careful not to cook for too long because then it will thicken too much)
Remove from heat and squeeze lemon juice and mix together


 Not requested but you get an extra bonus:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No not a boob shot just my new favorite shirt, but this confuses most people cause they don't understand why I would love that movie soo much, they've never heard of the other Ironman :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don't forget my Technical Hoodie Giveaway!

Technical Hoodie Giveaway!!

My goodie bag!

As promised another awesome giveaway!!  This one is courtesy of Running Chics!  These wonderful ladies were kind enough to let me try it and give one away to a lucky winner!  When I first saw this hoodie on their website I thought it was a sweatshirt style but it is a technical hoodie which means the material is perfect to run in or to throw on right after an event.  I got a medium and it fit perfectly.  I love the style and color and I was even happier when I saw they would put which ever "chic" I choose, of course I picked the "triathlon chics" 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Detail on the back too!            

Notice there is a pocket on one side that is just the right size for keys or ID!  I liked the zipper in the front too!

Don't worry I won't quit my day job to become a model :-)  I think it's safe to say I am a little awkward in front of the camera.  But I had to show you how it fit....  Now all you need to do to enter is these two simple steps:  

1.  Like my FB page Here.

2.  Go to Running Chics website Here and let me know which is your favorite sports "chic" off their chic - er ticker.

Bonus entry if you share this giveaway!

Winner gets a hoodie of their own in their choice of color with their choice of "chic".  Also men don't be shy enter and win one for your significant other!  I've always dropped hints that the perfect gift would be sports related! :-)  Giveaway ends on Friday April 20th, I didn't want to end it on Friday the 13th!! 

Wall Humper and Road ID Winner!

Before I announce the winner of my Road ID giveaway I have to tell you a short story about my swim int he pool yesterday!  I'm swimming my laps in the last lane minding my own business while the spunky elderly ladies follow along with their aqua aerobics instructor in the other lanes.  BTW there is this one lady that takes that class and she sees me getting ready to swim and every time she tries to convince me how I should join them because I can burn more calories :-)  I don't try to explain to her the concept of triathlon training I just tell her I'll have to try it some day, is that wrong?  The other day she walks in and announces to the entire locker room "It must be Easter Guilt cause the gym is packed!" I love how the older you get you say whatever you want and LOUDER!!! 

But that's not my story, my story is then someone else gets in the pool to share a lane with me but I go a few laps without seeing him pass and I notice it's because he's doing this weird stretch that looks like a frog humping the side of the pool, that's the only way I can explain it and I'm such a good artist I thought I'd try to show you what it looks like:

Ok so I'm not a good artist but it was kind weird.  I still gave him the benefit of the doubt and thought maybe it's just a really good stretch I'm not familiar with.  Then out of no where he torpedoes under me and scares the crap out of me!!!  He would swim the length of the pool without breath under me close to the floor and since he was wearing flippers he'd be really fast.  Then he would do that stretch again then torpedo again, and repeated this about 10 times every time scaring me, then his workout was done.  THE END.   Hope you enjoyed my Swim Tale :-)

Now the winner of my ROAD ID GIVEAWAY!!!!!!!!  I used the Random.org website to generate a random number... and THE WINNER IS:

Trish at Begin Again and Again!!!!!!!!! 

Congrats!  E-mail me your e-mail address and I can send you the code to redeem the Road ID of your choice up to $35 which for me covered the Road ID I picked, an extra arm band, and the shipping :-)

Stay tuned I have another fun giveaway coming up VERY SOON!!

Impromptu Midnight Relay for a Cause!

Good cause, good people, laughs, delirium, cops, Cujo, trains, stars, robbery, all in a night to remember.  I said I would never do a relay no matter how much my friend coaxed me.  On Friday at work I received a text from her "Call me now!"  I thought something was wrong so of course I called.  "We gotta do this relay!"  of course I said no but then she explained what it was for:


The Cause:

The Ulman Cancer Fund

The People:

Revolution3 Triathlon

They are doing a Run Across America to raise money for the Ulman Cancer Fund and there is still time to donate!  They have two teams that leap frog taking 8 hour shifts and they take turns running.  They contacted our running club because they need an 8 hour shift covered while passing through NM so they could nurse some injuries and get some well deserved rest so my friend decided to come to the rescue last minute and put together a team to take it on!  It was such a great experience and even though we only met them briefly I could feel the energy that each of them put out!  Some of us on our team had never met other than through DM or FB but we all had fun. 

Cops/Robbery - We were in the middle of no where between midnight and 8am with our hazards on going really slow following runners with a head lamp/vest and blinking red lights, so we got pulled over at least 5-6 times.  A couple of times the cops asked our runner if we had seen a guy in jeans walking and we had actually noticed 2 guys dressed in black walking together on this desolate road and thought it was odd but then we figured they thought the same about us.  The cops told us they had just robbed a store and took off with lights on.  Another one just wanted to make sure we were ok and once we explained he just waived us on.

Cujo - There was one small town that we ran through that was very scary mainly because each house had at least 6 vicious dogs protecting it and  Cujo was on the lose while one of us was running, luckily he just sniffed our runner a little and took off but he was HUGE and scary and when it was my turn to run my heart was racing so fast and I've never been afraid of dogs.  Once I looked over to see one racing towards me with gnarly teeth but then it came to the end of it's chain!!!!

Trains/Pooping in the desert - Another one of us was apparently scared to death of trains, we couldn't stop laughing (sorry) I mean seriously who's scared of trains :-)  I appreciated when the trains came by because I figured the loud noise was scaring away critters that might have been lurking in the dark waiting for us to pass by.  She did get over her fear of pooping in the open though on this trip we were all so proud she's officially an endurance runner now!!

Can you guessed who organized this for us?  Maybe the one that looks way too excited to be running a relay at midnight?

 After all that we made it back safe and it was an awesome experience.  Although it confirmed that I am grumpy when I don't get sleep and not a very good night runner I did manage to get 9 of our team of 5's 48 miles in and even though I wouldn't want to do a relay that was actually a race I loved the experience and my running friends and all for a good cause!  I then came home and went for a 2 mile hike/walk with a friend who it was her 1st time exercising and I'm so proud of her!  She did awesome and has a plan to get healthy!  Another runner rushed home because he still had to go pace his wife on her 1st 10k race ever and she did awesome!

It was a good weekend folks!!!  How about you would you rather do a 36 hour running relay or an Ironman?  IM for me thanks!

P.S. Don't forget to enter my Road ID giveaway HERE!!! ends April 6th