Hitting the Track

Pyper looks like she belongs on the track. Here she is cooling off after a hot muggy practice.  She does get in a lap or two during practice. 

Last month I started participating in track workouts with the Greenville Track Club.  It's actually something I've been meaning to do for quite some time, but haven't gotten around to.  That's motherhood for you.  Things that should take an hour, even a couple of minutes, can span weeks, months, or even years. Time is a completely different animal with kin. 

The Greenville Track Club meets up at the Greenville High School track every Wednesday at 6pm.  So once a week I attempt to make it.  So far I'm three for seven, but one wasn't my fault as the track was in use that evening.  Two of the times I was sick, and one of those evenings Pyper was sick.  There's that time factor slipping away again.  

Pyper comes to the track and happily plays with her friend Charlie while the group does about five miles worth of work.

I have an interesting relationship with tracks.  I've spent so much of my life on them, that I feel at home on them, but not necessarily in a good way.  It's like a kid growing up in house they can't wait to move out of when they are of age.  When they move away and come back to visit, it's home, but they're glad they moved out when they did. 

A lot of those feelings might be the years of mental struggles I've had on those rubberized surfaces.  There's the constant practicing, the many many losses, coupled with the occasional win.  When you are up against a field, or one of eight runners on the track, the odds aren't good that you are going to win.  Seven people loose, sometimes more with multiple heats, for there to be one winner.  There's also that pressure when you are expected to succeed.

I started track in middle school and continued on through high school.  I was recruited heavily for college all over the country, but I stayed at home attending the University of Washington.  My collegiate track days are few in number as I quit even before the season began.  I just wasn't into it anymore.  Maybe it was the lack of support or motivation, but I moved on.  Yes, I often wonder about my life had I continued, but I guess I wouldn't be here.  I like it here.  

Maybe you're wondering what races I ran, or what events I did.  Most people are pretty surprised when I tell them that the high jump was my specialty.  Almost since the beginning of my track life, I've always been able to jump over my height.  My highest jump to date is 5'9", I'm still 5'4", unless I've started the shrinking trend already.  I also ran the 100m hurdles and 300m hurdles, and alternated between the long jump and the triple jump.  If the team needed a relayer too, I was there.  I also did the heptathlon when it was an option.  As of this posting, I still hold the Newport High School High Jump record at 5'7.75", and I was the Washington State AAA High Jump Champion in 1998, my senior year.  Ah, reliving the glory days briefly is always fun.

Now a days I just consider myself a runner, in the generic sense.  I'm okay with that.  The track workouts are still a mental struggle, but I feel a new sense of power emerging since there is absolutely no pressure behind the trainings other than showing up and doing the prescribed workout.  I even feel like they are making me a little faster.  

The "Key" to Successful Blogging

So far, so good!  I'm keeping up with blogging.  I'm so excited by my new blogging tool, a keyboard!  There's just something about being able to stream thoughts through your fingers without much thought about penmanship or auto correct for that matter.  I've been using my iPhone to blog, which I still am, but now I have the use of a full size keyboard.  Andy thought it would be handy since I do actually know how to type in "words per minute."  

I remember taking a typing class in the 10th grade.  At that time, the class was an elective.  I'm glad I decided to take it because it's right up there, in my option, as a life skill.  No it's not necessarily essential, but it has saved me and countless others time and heartache.  Like right now as I type trying to keep up with my blog, I love it!  It's also pretty portable as it can fold in half.  Let me allow little Miss Vanna White to demonstrate:

Miss White is holding a "Perixx PERIBOARD-805L, Bluetooth Folding Keyboard - Support Android 4.4 KitKat - Large Desktop Size Keys - Magnetic Foldable Design - 6.30"x3.78"x0.67" Pocket Size - US English Layout." That's the Amazon title for it anyway.

So with my new blogging tool, and my love for typing (I really do have a fondness for typing), let the good blogging times roll.

Relatives in Route: Andy's Brief Wilmington Visit

Early morning departure from Donaldson Center Airport.

This morning Andy stopped off in Wilmington with his Eagle Med crew to pick up a 2 month old baby to fly him to Boston for surgery.  Because this was a prescheduled flight, Andy arranged to meet up with his Aunt Noel and Uncle Ronnie for a short visit.  They got a private tour of the King Air 90, and witnessed the crew in action on the ramp. 

Andy has been working at EagleMed for a little over two years. The company is based out of Wichita, but they have satellite bases all over the country.  Andy's crew includes a flight nurse and an EMT.  The base has four pilots. They work in teams of two, one for the day shift, the other for the night shift. The teams switch every 7 days. Andy is currently on his day shift. 

Strawberry Season Coming to an End

It's getting hot in the South, muggy too.  If I were a strawberry out in the field, I think I'd call it quits!  I'm actually surprised the strawberries made it this long.  But some of the farms are already on to the next crop, Peaches!

This morning Pyper and I headed out to one of our local strawberry farms for a 20 gallon strawberry pickup for the Swamp Rabbit Cafe & Grocery.  Somehow our order got misplaced. So while the workers picked our order, Pyper and I managed to pick a quart, and eat a quart.  She learned the fine art of picking and eating ripe berries. It doesn't take long to figure out which color tastes better. By the end she just started grabbing them out of the basket.  Guess she's a smart one.

And what does one do with all those strawberries? I think pictures will help!  

Yes, those are real, honest to goodness, photos from the Swamp Rabbit Cafe.  Wish you were here to taste the goodness!

Running Again

All right, so I don't have the best track record for sticking with things, like blogging, but that's because I'm goal oriented. I didn't set myself up for success the first couple times around.

Running also took a back seat as soon as I finished that 50K I blogged about back in October of 2010.  I set a goal and a race, and I accomplished the feat. I checked the box and moved on with my life.  

I liked running when I had a goal set, but running for pleasure just wasn't doing it for me. In December I started looking up trail races in the local area and came across a 6 race trail series called the Greenville Dirt Series.  The shortest distance was 5K (3.2mi), the longest will be 16K (9.4mi). Currently we are at the half way point in the series. I've run an 8K, 5K, and 12K at this point, with a 7K, 10K, and 16K on the horizon. Since the races are of moderate distance, I've made it a goal to increase my speed a little.  So now instead of coming in at the back of the pack, I come in somewhere in the middle.  

Running with my friend Mary at the Foothills Drifter 6K in February.  The only race of the season I didn't get a side cramp because I was talking the whole time ;) Extra bonus race that isn't part of the series. 

Last weekend I ran the 12K race, number three in the Dirt Series.  Although I hadn't run in over 10 days prior to the race because of illness, possibly adult croup of all things, I had prepped well enough that the sickness didn't discourage me from starting the race.  With that said, I somehow found my way to the start and asked an official looking gentleman what time the race started as there weren't many runners milling around. I was thinking maybe I was early. He causally looked at his watch and said "15 minutes ago."  At that point we quickly tried to find my bib number and I hit the trail trying not to pin myself and run at the same time.  Well, at least I didn't feel any pressure whatsoever. 

I was quite surprised when I caught up to the last of the racers around mile 3, then caught up with another late start racer. I ran alone most of the way trying to fight a side cramp, the side cramp was definitely on the winning side most of the race. A mile out, I caught up to a small pack of ladies and hung on as my side cramp increased intensity.  I decided to pass them a half mile out, in case they were in my age group, which I later found out they weren't.  As I approached the finish I could hear the awards being announced, which is a good indicator that the race has been over awhile. But as always, my biggest fans were at the finish cheering me on and clapping little hands. 

Pyper chose our matching shirts today. Usually on a Saturday we work the Farmers Market, she must have known it was a Market day!  

The Art of the "Selfie": As discovered by a 2 year-old

Pyper has gotten pretty good at taking pictures of "her world." By that, I mean the knee-high world. The photos she shoots are mostly in focus and framed now.

Exploring Daddy's Garage

Hanging out at the Swamp Rabbit Cafe & Grocery with Eli, the son of one of the owners. 

Us, Pyper and I, working the Saturday Farmer's Market in Downtown Greenville. 

Sometimes I'll scroll through my camera roll to discover Pyper's face, usually cut off, looking down at the camera. I might keep one or two, but thanks to the digital age, I can trash the 50 other like-photos with a swipe of the finger. 

Which photo would you keep? Would you trash them all? 

On Thursday we took a family walk down the Swamp Rabbit Trail, which is like Greenville's version of the Burke-Gilman Trail.  Pyper asked if she could take some photos with my iPhone, so I said sure. Upon inspection of her work, I wasn't surprised at the stroller canopy framed pavement pictures, the occasional photo of a cyclist or walker coming toward or away from us, many pictures of her pants and shoes, and two dozen of her usual selfies. But then something caught my eye, a change in her expression 25 "selfies" down the roll. 

You can visually see something is "clicking" in her little growing brain! (Pun intended)

As you can see, there were little changes in expression over a handful of pictures, but then something fascinating happened about 50 frames in, every expression changed, frame by frame. I couldn't suppress laughter when I came across these:

I think we just witnessed Pyper taking a concious selfie! 

Okay, I didn't have the heart to delete any of Pyper's photos.  

As reported by The Guardian back in November of 2013, a "selfie – a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website– has been named word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries editors, after the frequency of its usage increased by 17,000% over the past 12 months

Keeping up is hard to do

Keeping up is hard to do, especially since I just finished writing a post and the application crashed! Yup, over two years later, I've rediscovered this blog, and I definitly think it will work this time ;) That old saying of "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." I'm not afraid to fail, so here's to another shot at blogging.  A lot has happened since the last post, we've added another gypsy to this world! But most of you know that, so no surprise there. But here's a quick summary in two photos: Day one and Yesterday!

February 25, 2012

June 5, 2014