4 runs, who am I?

Sorry for the pooping photo but I just love the composition!

YES!  Thanks to much cooler and manageable temps, I got 4 runs (4, 3, 3, and 7) and 2 bike rides in!  We also had a quick staycation as our mini vacation got canceled thanks to the track canceling their race that we were all headed to in Minnesota.  

We are also trying to soak up every single minute of summer before we head back to school.  While summer has been super busy this year, I have loved most every minute of it.  That has meant early mornings and late nights to make up for time away from work, but I don't care.  We are eating ice cream in other towns, visiting places we haven't in a long time, swimming during the day, and having as much fun as we can.  We will try and get as many experiences in as we can before August 15th rolls around!

I also got my pictures back from the 40 over 40 program I did.  I will try and sneak in my favorites in the next few weeks.  Yes, we are almost the same height now.  NO I was not prepared to take a full body shot of myself hence the shoes, but I went with what Nikita had in her head and even though I am in hey dudes, I LOVE every single shot, belly and all.

I am so glad I trusted in this process and let her pick out my dresses.  I love how this black dress turned out and it was not one I even looked at during the initial consultation!  Photographers are artists and have vision.  Trust them!

I also stayed up super late one night to hang out with some of my most favorite people at play Drag Queen Bingo.  We had so much fun raising money for a great cause, I won a bingo and got a prize, and Kerry got to experience not only Manhattan Brewing company, but also Aggieville, as we had to find food post the bar shutting down and nothing was open.  

We also brought Deuce home.  I had a total breakdown in the vet's office, but got lots of hugs from the very sweet vet techs we have.  They not only had us a clay paw print, but also a very sweet card that included his nose print and very sweet messages from all of them.  He will join the rest of the aussie crew in various spots around our house.

On to a happier note, our mini staycation included a Topeka day with gooney golf, go cart riding, a trip to the Topeka zoo, and a new to us brewery in downtown Topeka.   Here are just a few pictures.  

For the record, Tony and I tied on our scores, something that never happens.  Andrew wasn't far behind us, although we let him have several do overs at the beginning since he insisted on going first every time.  

The baby orangutan was my favorite at the zoo.  If you don't think we shared a common ancestor, spend some time watching them in a zoo or the wild.  Topeka has a real gem of a zoo, if you ever are in Topeka needing something to do. They are also doing lots of renovations to make bigger exhibits for the animals which I love.  We went on world Tiger day and learned lots of facts about tigers.  My favorite exhibit was the lorikeets though.  Such beautiful birds and you could observe so much fascinating behavior.  

Go cart racing was slightly terrifying for me, not going to lie.  I could barley reach the pedals, and I don't use one foot for brake and one for gas, so I just let off of the gas if needed.  I also didn't know how hard I could push the car and it spin out or worse.  Andrew won with me coming in fourth.  Even Tony couldn't catch Andrew!!!!  GO GINGER RACER!

We finished the night with Iron Rail Brewery beer and food in downtown Topeka.  Simply put, it was amazing and we will be back.  I had both the peach cobbler wheat beer and the smore stout and I brought home a growler of the peach.  Tony tried the tangerine wheat and we all had desserts to try.  I think the skillet brownie won, but the fried beignets in banana foster sauce was a pretty close second.  

Have a great week y'all!  I am looking at the temps for the first week of august with a giant eye roll, but it is still summer and I have to remember that.  One month closer to cooler temps and more happy running!

It's not goodbye, it's see you later

This week was not a great week for running or for life in general.  I am working on another post, but we lost Deuce or I should say we said good bye and let him run free to the rainbow bridge.

We have been battling wounds and new symptoms and loads of medications around the clock.  I hated to give up if he had any chance at all, but when he woke up Thursday I knew the look in his eyes meant he was ready.  Our vet's office made a hard event so much easier and he went peacefully with all of us including the entire vet office loving on him.  Our whole family has been in mourning losing him, but we all know he is in a better place and pain free. He was such an amazing dog and I will do a post with pictures and more memories when I can stop crying so much.  We have now as a family lost Berry, Harley, Miller, and now Deuce.  Some days I think maybe it would be easier to just not own a pet at all because of the heartbreak that comes when they leave us.  I still feel very intense pain thinking of him and cry at the drop of a hat, but I know it will get better with time.  I have to say a huge thank you to everyone who sent me messages, texts, cards, and flowers.   The mean so much to all of us.

Running was horrible this week thanks to 100 plus temps without the heat index even added in.  Andrew had football camp all week in which we saw many kids suffer with heat related issues.  Andrew made it through just fine, probably because in racing he is in a triple layer fire suit and fire proof underclothing that is quite hot.  While there were issues that I am not happy about that the kids will have to settle themselves, overall he hustled, he wasn't last, and he tried his best.  That is all I ask for. 

I did get one bike ride in Sunday night post racing.  Two runs plus a long bike ride has to count for something right?

We also raced Sunday to mixed results.  Tony has been sick with a bad cold (not covid, we were both tested just in case) and I also was lucky enough to catch it as well.  Andrew has been spared thus far, but I am sure he will get it too at some point.  We all felt horrible (no fevers), but we didn't want to miss a race as we will miss some this fall thanks to Saturday races and football games not mixing.  He didn't finish last, but his times were exactly the same as last race, meaning we need to do some test and tune.  We just haven't had the time we had hoped we would have, and honestly, it's not going to get much better with fall sports starting.  He did try and pass and got into a wreck, but I don't blame him for that because the driver came down on him and he had the corner.  He was trying hard and that is all I care about, even if the results were not what we had hoped for.  We need for just slightly cooler weather and an extra hour a day, so we can test and tune and get that last .2 of a second we need to be with the front runners.  

Some other highlights of our week was a visit to the trampoline park to avoid the heat and a trip to the winery to listen to a friend's local band do 80s and 90s covers with a blue grass twist.  To be such a sad week there was a lot of happiness as well and we smiled through our tears.  

The dogs and I am looking forward to some cooler temps this week and more running if this cold allows.  Have a great week y'all!

100+

We are in the thick of summer and I am not liking it.  My heat tolerance has gone down to 0.   Last year this time I was grinding it out and getting it done.  This year I am lucky if I get three runs period.  Call it lack of motivation or heat tolerance or whatever,  it just isn't there anymore.  I had hoped me signing up for a race would be motivation enough to suffer through, but it hasn't been.  Oh well. I can always make it through a half marathon with my BRF by my side even with minimal training.

Let me give you a quick Deuce update.  We are still trying to get his first wounds to heal. He has three on one foot including the whole large pad sloughing off.  Now we are battling two on his other foot.  I have had numerous vet opinions that include everything from the meds caused it to the meds kicked off an auto immune response.  All include treatments that we are already doing, so no matter what I guess we are on the right path.  This week included him starting to have sundowner's syndrome.  This means when it gets dark out he starts barking for no reason.  My poor hubby sleeps with him every night and he was up multiple times taking him out to potty and trying to figure out why he was barking.  We are trying a pain relief med that also has some affect on anxiety, which is part of sundowner's syndrome.  I never knew this had a name as several of my older dogs have gone through this towards the end of their time on this side of the rainbow bridge.  I am going to be very honest in that I feel like we are fighting a losing battle but my hubby does not want to give up yet and I am trying to honor that.  

Running wise I got three runs in.  Two before work and one on the weekend way too late on Saturday.  We are trying to maintain some sort of training for the half, but this continual 100 degrees + with 100 percent humidity just isn't working for me this year.  When I get up to run before the sun is even up and it's already 80 + with 100 percent humidity, honestly it defeats me and I can't bring Boom at all.  Yes, could run on the dreadmill in the AC, but post my almost fall on our mill at home, I have horrible balance issues running on the mill and am not trusting myself to not fall fully.   

On another note, Andrew had a full week of finishing up golf, football camp, and swim lessons.  We have had crazy improvement in all of the areas.  We are going to continue with golf lessons which means I will be taking them as well since I can use his clubs (almost the same height now by a couple of inches).  He did his first jump off of the low dive this week and now has morphed into a fish and wants to be at the pool diving and swimming under water constantly (go figure).  AND we had our first football camp of the year in Abilene at the Cody Whitehair clinic where he tackled, ran, and caught balls like I have NEVER seen him do before with kids he didn't even know.  He did have 3 kids from his team in his group and I am sure that helped, especially since they were also in his wrestling club.  I still can't get over how he turned 10 and suddenly is morphing into this confident kiddo.  I LOVE seeing him be brave and try new things and step outside of his comfort zone.  

I also got out twice on my bike.  I figure if I can't run, I can at least get 10 milers in on the bike.  Of course I haven't tried on my bike jerseys since i have gained all of this weight so they are a wee bit tight.  Whoops.  

And last but not least our sponsored car/driver had a weekend full of racing and we finally got to see him in action in person!

We ae still learning SO much about dirt racing and boy is it fun!  Micah is driving in the restricted class and is doing several series around Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri.  We drove up to Nebraska (less than 2 hours to get to the border) and watched him tear it up!  Andrew loves watching and even commented he might want to drive a Junior sprint soon.  Not holding my breath, but boy it sure would be fun to see him race on dirt!

Andrew also was super brave and asked a very famous driver Kaylee Bryson for her autograph.  She is amazing and kicked butt at the Chili Bowl last year in Tulsa.  SO nice to see women drivers kicking ass and taking names.  Once again, this kid continues to amaze me with his new found bravery.  Not only did she sign his shirt, she took pictures with both boys separately, and was uber patient with them fan boying out.

Have a great week y'all!  We have a million appointments, football camp, and another week of heat coming up.  Stay cool and stay hydrated!

BOOM TOWN

What a busy week!  4ht of July fell on a Monday this year which just made the whole week weird.  I took Tuesday morning off to recover from lack of sleep and with heat indices above 100 most of the week, not a lot of running took place.  Before I start into 4ht of July fun, here is a pic from Andrew' golf camp.  He had three lessons, each an hourish and in his words he loves it and it's amazing.  Since we still have some time left this summer before school starts, we are going to get him some private instruction and try and get the rest of us up to speed since we know NOTHING of golf!

We had a huge party at our house on the 4th.  Here are some of the photos since not much running took place this week! Half of our track family came over and we went to the park for the car show, watched the parade, did some rides at the carnival with the boys, ate all the food, and watched the amazing firework show.

I am already planning for next year!  We all had a ton of fun and the fireworks were amazing as always.  Have a great week y'all!