Excuses

I apologize...it's been over a week since my last blog! Saturday was my first day at my new per diem job at Brookwood Hospital. Let's just say there is a reason why I choose not to work with adults full time. But whatever, it's a nice paycheck, it's like twice a month, and if anything, it makes me appreciate my job at Children's even more!

Tom and I were supposed to run 11 miles yesterday morning. We only did 7. Tom was sick all last week and only ran once and I guess my excuse was that I worked 6 days last week....and that I had pizza for Friday dinner, Saturday lunch, and Saturday dinner (we ordered out Friday night!) Considering we were toying with the idea of turning the car around and going back to bed on our way there, I'd say it's pretty impressive that we even did 7!

This week should be a general repeat of last week, work M-F, work Saturday, run 7 miles Sunday morning! The Mercedes 1/2 marathon is only 2 weeks away! I'm a little nervous b/c it's supposed to be pretty hilly. Miles 2-4 are on a gradual incline and miles 9-10 are up hill as well. I would like to do the Nashville 1/2 marathon in April, but I think it's gonna end up costing more money than what it's worth with travel, hotel, etc. To be honest I'd rather spend that money and go to the beach this summer than spend it to go run a half-marathon ;) If only I could find a half-marathon on the alabama gulf coast.........

Lazy Sunday afternoon ramblings

Mmmmm, I just made manicotti! I don't know if it's any good yet......because it's still cooking in the oven...I'll keep you posted! I actually made 2 and froze one so we'll have something easy and yummy to eat during the week. That's my latest kick....cook a big meal Sunday evening, make double and freeze half for later on in the week since neither of us ever feel like cooking after going to work and the gym/running.

Tom ran 9 miles with me this morning! I'm so proud of him. He's getting into shape pretty quickly for the Mercedes half-marathon which is less than 3 weeks away!

Let's see, what else is new......I just finished the book "I know this much is true" by Wally Lamb. Excellent. I read "She's come undone" a few years ago and loved that one too. I liked the recent one the best. His books are soooooooooo long though it takes me forever to get through them. But if you have some time or like to read I highly recommend it.

I'm going for orientation tomorrow.........I'm going to be working some per diem on weekends at a local hospital down here. It'll be rehab, which I like, but it will be adults, which I don't like.......just kidding. It should be a nice break from Children's and hopefully I'll learn a lot too in regards to rehab. I probably won't do it forever, but I figure not much goes on Saturdays from January-March b/c there is no football and the weather is usually crappy. I'm actually signed up to work through June...I'll probably stay with it for at least a year or so since there is no monthly minimum working requirement. I can sacrifice one weekend a month this summer and fall I guess ;)

Ok, manicotti is almost ready......and there is football to be watched (not the Eagles though *sigh* I'm getting used to this...unfortunately).

I love weekends

I'm so excited that it's Friday. We don't even have anything planned for this weekend (except for a 9 mile run Sunday morning at 6:30) but I'm just so glad it's here. Last weekend was pretty productive for us. Tom worked a lot on his thesis project at lab and I cleaned and organized a bunch of my stuff.

I went to a wheelchair basketball tournament at Lakeshore Foundation Saturday afternoon for a little bit. It was awesome! They had all different age groups but the college teams were my favorite to watch. Some of the guys had upper bodies/arms/chests bigger than anyone I know! And they were ruthless! They would just crash into each other and their chairs would turn over and they would just hop back upright chair and all using just their arms. It was really fun to watch. There is a quad rugby tournament there in March that I can't wait to go to.

It's really amazing that the Lakeshore Foundation is literally right down the street from us and it's 1 of only 5 or 6 official Olympic and Paralympic training sites in the whole country. They do a lot of cool research there too. They just did a study on power soccer...which is people who have significant physical involvement/disabilities and use their power wheelchairs to play soccer. Physically, their bodies are not really moving at all, just their power wheelchairs, but the study they conducted found that power soccer had a positive cardiovascular effect on these patients. That's just really amazing I think and has huge implications for the benefits of recreation and physical activity even for people who physically may not even be able to move anything below their neck! Sorry, I'll get off my PT soapbox now :)

It finally got cold down here again....30's and 40's. I hope it's not too cold for the Mercedes 1/2 marathon in February! Although anything can be better than running a marathon with 100% humidity and temps in the 80's! Not that I'm complaining.......... ;)

Stromboli!

Oh my gosh! I just made the BEST STROMBOLI EVER tonight! Actually it's more like a stromboli-calzone. I forget what the difference is between the two, but I only put pepperoni and mozzarella and ricotta cheese in it (b/c I'm super picky) so I think that makes it a calzone. Anyways it came out awesome. I'm so psyched too because I've been craving a good calzone ever since I left Philly and I haven't had anything that compares so far....until tonight :D Actually, I don't think I've had any calzones since I've been down here! There are no good Pizza places and the ones that I've heard are good aren't close to our apartment!

Running is spreading like a disease through the Bodenstine household. Guess who ran 7 miles this morning with me?! Tom! We're both going to run the Mercedes half marathon on February 11th. 4 weeks to go! I think the only way to guarantee that I keep running is to keep signing up for these races. I know the Nashville 1/2 marathon is in April and I hear that's a fun race. We'll see :)

I know, who puts a picture of themselves pretending to eat a stromboli on their blog?!

More Pics

I DID IT!

I DID IT!! I ran 26.2 miles! And on that note...I AM SO SORE! Haha. It was amazing! (And sooooooo HOT with 100% humidity!!!!) There were 16,000 marathoners in all and about 2,000 of us were TNTer's! (Team in Training). It was so inspiring to see all the other purple jerseys while running and read the backs of people's shirts. And it was even more inspiring to see how many people were cheering for Team in Training!

Our Team from Alabama/Gulf Coast met in our hotel lobby at 3:10 am on Sunday to board the bus and go over to the start together. Around 5 they headed us toward our starting corrals and we started at 6 am! We ran through Epcot for the first 3 miles, then headed up to Magic Kingdom which were miles 9-11. Then we ran this long (boring) stretch on this back road from Magic Kingdom down to Animal Kingdom (at which point I thought I was going to die from miles 14-18). Then we ran on some highway but it was kind of cool because at one point we looped back around so we were passing by runners coming the other direction. Plus there were some people cheering at this point too (miles 19-22....unlike miles 14-18). Then we entered MGM studios around mile 22.5. I was looking forward to that the whole run and by this point I was pretty proud of myself for already running 22.5 miles! I figured if for some reason I didn't finish, at least I've run over 22 miles! Then around mile 23 an EAGLES chant broke out (thankully they won last night!!). Then we left MGM and ran through some nice resort area on the way back through Epcot. There weren't as many people in Epcot cheering as I thought there would be. I ran into a guy that I trained with around mile 24 and ran with him for a little bit. Then mile 25 hit and I was so excited! Around mile 26 you could start to hear the people at the finish line and when I finally went around the curve and saw the FINISH line I think my heart stopped! ;) I carried a disposable camera with me and took pics the whole way so I'll post them on my webshots page as soon as I get them developed...I even got my picture with Safari Mickey while running through Animal Kingdom! ;)

All in all it was awesome...very very very very very difficult and exhausting...I know at some points I was being carried through the race by spirits, energy, and prayers instead of by my legs. Not sure if I'll ever run another one. If I do it will be one where there are people cheering the whole way (those back roads between parks where there weren't any spectators were tough....it's amazing how easy it is to run when people are cheering for you - my name was on my race number). The training was extremely time-consuming and the soreness I am currently experiencing is excruciating at times, but that high you get during the end of the run and when you cross the finish line is exhilerating! (way too many words starting with "E" in that sentence!) Here are some pics! More will be up on webshots soon. Only 5 weeks til the Mercedes half-marathon! (I may have recruited me some company during that race...... ;)

Pic Tom took of me at mile 13....too hot....need powerade....

Tommy and me after the race. I saw him at miles 4 (he didn't see me though!), 9, and 13!! And bless his heart (that's SO an Alabama saying) he had to be on the bus to epcot at 4:30 Sunday morning because they closed down the roads for the marathon so there was no other way to get to the parks!

Superhero pose with my cape cooler thingy. Did not need that AT ALL as it was ridiculously hot all day!

Pluto, Me, and Goofy at the TNT Victory Party!

Happy New Year!

So I'm sitting on the couch, enjoying the new year by watching football and basking in Penn State's bowl win when I realized I haven't blogged in a long time! The past couple weeks have been such a whirlwind! We went home for Christmas, which was really nice. We stayed at Tom's parents for a couple days, then went up to my parents for Christmas (watched the Eagles win!!!!!!) and then came back to Tom's parents again before flying back to Bham. Then I went back to work and I had to work Saturday and Sunday too so I've been extra busy. We had some people over last night for new year's eve. We had a blast but can I just tell you how weird it was to celebrate new year's in a different time zone?! We watched the ball drop but it was only 11! Then when the ball dropped for our midnight it was kinda anti-climatic because we already saw it drop ;) Ok, I need to get back to the couch before my imprint goes away ;P I'll update more later and post some pics. Marathon is in 6 days!!!! Ahhhh!!!!! :)