onepinkfuzzy

The premier blogland EVENT of 2008:

Zane Grey 50m/50k, Payson AZ, April 26, 2008.

I want to run 30 miles for my 30th birthday (April 13), and decided that I want to do so with at least 30 of my friends. Yes, that means YOU! Whether you want to run 50 miles or 50 kilometers, or maybe you just want to be crew or volunteer for the race, I want to see you there.

Zane Grey is known as the toughest 50 miler in the US. It features something like over 10,000 feet of elevation gain, more rocks than you can ever imagine and two looooong stretches of burned forest that you go through in the middle of the day as the sun beats down on your weary head.

For the past three years, I have been at this race, as crew and volunteer. I swept the last 17 miles two years ago, and swore I'd never run that race - the rocks were wicked! I've been Olga's crew for the last two years. This year, I get to participate as a runner!

The Arizona running community is awesome; many of my trail running group have participated as runners and volunteers over the years. Northern Arizona is gorgeous. What better way to welcome summer than by sharing a fantastic day with other crazy, like-minded runners.

What's that you say? You think you can't run an ultra? You've got six long months to train; join me as we whip our bodies into shape to tackle the best damn trail run there is. I'm looking for training buddies - whether you live in Tucson or Australia, we can train together.

Help me celebrate my 30th birthday in style!

Posted by Angie's Pink Fuzzy at 01:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)

(Don't say I didn't warn you.)

I suppose getting drunker than I have in eight years while sick with a wicked cold isn't exactly the best idea. Five red-headed sluts (minus the cranberry juice) along with one (disgusting) lime jello shot and one tequila shot added up to one drunk Angie last night at a hot tub party held in honor of a friend who is leaving to visit her family in Germany for the next three or four months. No vomiting, for which I was grateful. When I was 21, I experienced a horrible night when I got smashing, pass-out-and-then-wake-up-in-a-puddle-of-vomit drunk by sharing a bottle of Aftershock with my brother-in-law, and since then, I generally only drink two to three beers any one night and I stay the hell away from shots! (Well, except for last night.)

I woke up with no hangover (I'm grateful to my friends for making me drink water throughout the night), but my cold is rearing it's ugly head and letting me know it is quite unhappy with me. I'm wandering throughout my messy house, whimpering at the pain in my sinuses and throat, and feeling like I want to sleep but I'm incapable of actually doing so.

I'm currently ensconsed on my couch with my legs up on a nearby chair, my head resting on a soft pillow, three books nearby and a shepard's pie cooling (I'm starving!). Because of this cold, I haven't run this week since Monday, and I'm doubtful I'll run the planned 7.5 miles at Sabino tomorrow morning. Really, I just want someone to wait on me hand and foot and also rub my head to make me feel better. Too bad C is not available :(

I'm off to surf the Net and catch up on blogs.

Posted by Angie's Pink Fuzzy at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

When running and art collide....

On last Saturday's run, Lisa had a fantastic idea on how to combine my two primary passions - running and art: create altered running art! I loved the idea, and as a way to get this started, I'm offering the first five people who jump on the chance a free altered running art piece. (If more than five people wave their hands in the comments section, I'll go with the first five photos I receive.)

You provide me with: a favorite photo of you running, the race bib (if applicable and if you are willing to give it up and let me play with it (which could mean tearing it to pieces and then reassembling it)), the colors you would prefer (if you want, otherwise you could let me choose), any other ephemera and/or memoriabilia associated with that picture (or running, or whatever you want) and any preferences on sizing the piece.

I'll provide you with: a one-of-a-kind piece of art incorporating everything you give me. I only ask that if you like it, you post a photo of it on your blog.

Any takers?

____
UPDATE

OMG, I just found out that Zane Grey is offering a 50k option this year! YES!!!!!!!!!! I am SOOOOO DOING THIS RACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 30 miles for my 30th birthday, baby!

Posted by Angie's Pink Fuzzy at 02:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)

Holy moly, after the sporadic running (including some six weeks with absolutely NO RUNNING AT ALL), I ran eight miles this morning!

Photos here.

I met Pat, Lisa and Karen in Chandler for an eight-mile run. I wasn't sure I would - or even should - run the full eight miles. And after the first couple humid miles in desperate need of a bathroom, I really didn't think I would do the whole she-bang.

But running in the urban jungle is fun - just when I needed it most, an air-conditioned gas station with a beautiful clean bathroom appeared. Whew! Much better - and I was ready to keep going.

Conversation flowed easily and our feet were carried on wings of laughter. As Karen said, Pat is an animal! And yes, I had a different term for the runner's high - the runner's "O". (No, I won't use the word, I don't want random people googling it and finding my blog, ha!) I think Pat's ears were ready to fall off by that time (about six miles in). Poor guy, running with three women.

I enjoyed running next to water. Okay, it was a nasty canal, but still. Water, people. Water isn't a common sight in the desert! Ducks and even a heron were our companions, along with some horses!

Lisa and I kicked it up a notch for the last half-mile, just to see what we could do. At one point, we realized we were running sub-nine-minute miles, and tried to up it just a touch to reach an 8:30-minute-mile pace, but we didn't quite make it. By the time we hit the last streetlight, we were both ready to vomit. It was a blast! A little bit more jogging as a cool down got us 8 miles.

It was a wonderful reminder of why I like to run: the friends, the camaraderie, the lungs working, the "O". (Which, by the way, usually takes me about 1.5 hours to reach, and sure enough, 1 hour, 25 minutes had passed by the time the endorphins kicked in. Then I was ready to keep going, and even up the pace! Note to self: Must remember that it takes that long to warm up and quit complaining for the first six miles.)

I definitely feel like this was a great confidence booster heading into the Run'n'Roll in a couple weeks. I could feel the base fitness that the last few years of running has given me; I know it's not completely gone. I'm not starting all over from scratch. I'm out of shape and weigh 30 pounds more than last May (yikes! 30 lbs in just over a year!!!), but it's 30 pounds I've lost before; shape I've been in before; a healthy place I know I will get back to (although I'll be fine losing just 15-20 of those pounds; I was unhappy with my body at my skinniest). Eh, I'll do it, no worries. I'll give it the time and space to occur, and just keep rolling out of bed, putting my clothes on and heading out the door. The rest will fall into place.

Posted by Angie's Pink Fuzzy at 02:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)

Wow, wow, wow. All the crappity crap crap has resolved itself so incredibly wonderfully this week. That tight financial situation has been resolved in addition to other things, all to my joy and relief. I have not felt this good since June. I am amazed and happy and jumping and down with joy.

This weekend, Ash and I are headed to Mesa to spend time with my family. And hopefully - if Ash seems like he'll be okay with it - I'll be waking up early to head to Chandler to run with Lisa, Pat and a blogger I just discovered, Karen, to run 8 (gasp! 8!) miles. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

I ran 2 miles this morning. I updated my log and took a look at my training for this year:

Sporadic, that's for sure. But I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things. I'm guessing I'll be able to run an average of 15ish miles per week relatively easily, and I'll use those 15 miles to actually do interesting things like tempo runs and fartleks and maybe hill repeats and things like that to improve my running in a way I haven't done before. Then maybe I'll start making my long runs longer (they'll always be on the trails), and by spring, I bet I'll be ready to easily do a half-marathon. That's the plan, anyway! No pressure, all joy.

I registered for the Run'n'Roll and am totally looking forward to it!!! C and Ash will be there cheering me on. I think it'll be a blast.

Posted by Angie's Pink Fuzzy at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I've been running, woo hoo! The mornings are getting colder, with less humidity, making for fantastic weather. I'm averaging 2.5 miles about twice a week. I registered for the Run'n'Roll, a five-mile race around UA that Paki and I have done for the last few years. It's in a couple weeks, we'll see how slow I go!

Phoenix folks - I'm headed up this weekend to far east side of Mesa - anyone up for running early Saturday morning somewhere? I was thinking of asking my folks to watch Ash so I could get 3 to 5 miles in.

One really big thing from this summer got resolved yesterday afternoon, and I've been feeling much better. This morning is another big thing (and everything else will be resolved by Feb 2008 - that's a long time away...). But forward progress is being made and that feels great.

Posted by Angie's Pink Fuzzy at 06:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I'm connected again at home, thank goodness.

So I ran Friday morning - got up at six to run to the store to get ingredients to make bread for the bake-off at work (tied for second place), then threw the bread in the oven and took off for my (very short) run. I also ran Saturday morning, yay! I doubled Friday's run (from 1.25 to 2.5). I'm looking forward to getting in shape this winter.

C and I wandered over to UA Saturday night to join some friends for a tailgate party and then to watch in misery as the Wildcats lost in a bad way to UNM.

Friday night, C and my parents met at dinner. Yup, TMI at moments from my parent's side - but we all had a lot of fun. They seemed to get along just fine. Although, at the end of dinner, my mom mentioned that the life partner (R) of a great-aunt of mine (D) had died the day before. The announcement, dropped so casually into the conversation, as if it were as mundane as "I did my nails yesterday," caught me off guard and I burst into tears. I hadn't seen R in years, and I knew she was going downhill, but I wasn't prepared for it. This morning, I was able to talk to my aunt D about R, and we cried together while rejoicing that R's pain is finally gone. R was a prickly woman, not big on tack and spoke her mind without regard for the consequence, causing most people to keep their distance. But I loved her. She taught me how to pour my soul, my emotion into my piano-playing. She poked and prodded my mind, made me think about things, challenged me to use my brain to express myself intelligently and honestly. Here is a photo of me at about 13 after a piano recital, with R hovering in the background, like a guardian angel.

Posted by Angie's Pink Fuzzy at 07:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

So I got the green light from my doc last Monday to run. I ran 1.25 slow miles on Friday morning, and went out for an hour trail run on the top of Mt. Lemmon after a public meeting last Saturday (yes, a meeting on Saturday morning!). On the way back down the trail, I landed wrong on my left foot, turning my ankle outward. I was able to gingerly run a bit more, but pretty much just walked back to the car.

Since then, my left arch has been KILLING me. It was getting worse and worse. Today is the first day it is starting to feel a little bit better.

I got all of two runs in before I hurt myself, dammit!

I will try tomorrow morning. We'll see how it goes.

Kiera is running the half-marathon next Saturday (that I won't be able to do). Good luck and have fun!!! I'll be looking for a half-marathon to do sometime this spring. That, and I need to figure out what to do for my 30th bday (granted, it's seven months away, but training takes time, especially if I want to do something wicked!).

On to other news:
My art-related blog has gone kaput, as I discovered a much better way of documenting my art stuff. I finally finished a canvas that had been gestating for weeks; that feels FANTASTIC!!!

Some of the crappity crap crap from this summer is getting more resolved, which makes me (and Ash) way way way happier!!!

C is meeting my parents tomorrow night; this is a big deal. I don't know why I'm telling y'all, other than that I'm a little freaked out! Let's hope my 'rents can keep the sex and bodily function talk down to a minimum. But seeings as how their main mission in life is to embaress their offspring, we'll see how that goes. Oh, and I hope they don't go off on politics or religion (they are polar opposites of C and me on those topics)...

I'm getting Internet service at home again next week, YAYAYAYAYAYAY!!! Maybe then I can actually keep up with y'all and find out what you've been up to.

Posted by Angie's Pink Fuzzy at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Although I left my ex-husband one year ago (last week was the one-year anniversary of the split; next Saturday is the one-year anniversary of my moving out...I can't believe I've lived all by myself (for the first time ever) for an entire year already), I had not taken Ash on vacation or road trip yet. Sure, we'd had long weekends around town, and last Thanksgiving I had him for almost a full week while we visited my family in Mesa, but we hadn't done anything bigger than that.

Well, for Labor Day weekend, we were given a gift of a trip, and I decided we'd hit the ocean.

Okay, seven hours in the car with a four-year-old? I was less than thrilled, and downright paranoid it was going to be hell on my nerves. But it wasn't. I prepared well, and he was psyched to be going to the ocean. Plus, I decided to leave Friday night, which meant he slept for half the drive. (Score one for Mom!) And the drive back was a breeze, too, even though it was daytime (thank goodness for a mini/portable DVD player and DVDs from the library!).

Do you know what it means to be a single mom on vacation with your preschooler? It means YOU have to carry the (incredibly heavy) stuff from the car down to the beach, all the while herding a child who is infinitely more interested in stopping every few feet to examine something "cool." It means sore shoulders, because you don't want to have to herd said child back UP the stairs for a second trip, so you load EVERYTHING on you for one trip, which means a backpack and two camping chairs and a cooler and the umbrella. And why is it that all the parking for every beach in CA is up a hill? Why do you have to take stairs for every beach? Do you know how HELLISH that is?!

It means families are frolicking all around you - a mom with a dad and two or three (or more) children. It means watching in envy as the "men" in the family lug the heavy stuff with the moms only have to worry about corralling their children.

It means no actual rest or vacation - it means eternal vigilance.

It means getting totally sunburned, because little four-year-old hands have no way of being able to completely smear sunscreen across your ENTIRE back.

It means you have to think through all the logistics and make all the decisions. Note to self: next time, call ahead before visiting a mission, to see if they take credit cards. No cash = no mission :(

Man, I must have been one lazy mama before. I realized that I really did let my ex make all the decisions. And carry all the heavy stuff. And do all the driving, for that matter - this was only the second road trip (of hundreds, literally thousands of hours on the road (ok, maybe SLIGHT exaggeration - but not really)) where I drove for longer than two hours.

I am now back at work, totally exhausted. I am happy beyond belief and totally satisfied. We did it. No major meltdowns - for either of us. (Although, somehow, we both ended up with a rash of smallish bumps on our torsos...)

Photos

Other good news - my cardiologist told me this morning that the heart issues I've been having are caused by an extra beat in my lower chamber, and since my heart is structurally sound and very healthy, she is not concerned. She gave me the green light to run to my heart's content :)

Posted by Angie's Pink Fuzzy at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)