groppi girl blogs

Yeap…another race report. Don’t worry though. They will be back in full effect in the fall. This race report concludes the sixth half marathon I’ve done in as many months. The WDW Half (as part of the Goofy Challenge) in January, the Princess and New Bedford Half Marathons in March, the Run to Remember in May, and the Old Sandwich Road Race and 13.1 Boston in June.

The 13.1 Boston was supposed to be a great day. My friend Katie had made the pilgrimage up from Baltimore to participate and we were disappointed. First of all, the race wasn’t even in Boston. It was through Canton and Milton. The course was nice but the hills were almost tortuous. My friend Ann Marie, who raced with us, said it best…it was more like mountain running.  The water stops ran out of cups so 50% of the runners had to either drink out of communal jugs or get water poured into their palms…not how it should be for a half marathon at the end of June…however, I digress.

It was pretty cool that the photographers got us at the starting line. Jill is in the pink tank and I’m in the blue. The weird thing was that to get to the start you had to climb over a rock wall….hmmrff.

The course was challenging. It was up steep hills 50% of the course. My sister Jill is trying to bounce back from an IT Band problem and this wasn’t a good race for her. So, instead of running alone, I decided to jog it slow with her and get her to the finish line. She was amazingly strong to tough it out and finish!!!! Now, she is on a strict rest schedule until Sunday, when we’ll take a test run.

Here we are at the finish…it was by far the worst half marathon we had ever run (over 14 minutes of our next worst time ever). It was disorganized, injured laden and tough. But it’s finished and it’s in the books. I’m so proud of Katie, Jill and Ann Marie for their strong finishes. The race committee tried to pull up the timing mats early on Katie and Ann Marie. But they made it to the finish just as the clock was being taken down. Jill and I were able to get their medals for them and award them at their finish.

The food after wasn’t that bad. There was plenty of it and Katie was proudly showing off her muffin at the finish.

It was a good time with great friends. I just wish that 13.1 Boston would get their act together and put an organized race out there. I look forward to the Philly Rock’n'Roll Half Marathon so I can put another decent time back on the books.

Crafty posts are on my mind…I promise some very soon. However, I have been very busy designing…just on something different. I would like the introduce the LGKG Dream Home 2010!!!

Kenny and I both set out to build something different than a typical New England Colonial. So, we meshed a Traditional layout with a Farmhouse. f/n architects designed the house from scratch with our input. I have to give Gordon a big hand…he made our crazy wish list reality. It’s been fun designing the house that we will be placing on the land recently purchased by our builder. YAY!

We are very excited to begin making the LGKG Dream Home a reality. It took us awhile to sell our old house but the wait was worth it!

The first floor has everything I wanted to take from the old house, like a mudroom and a huge kitchen, and added somethings we have wanted, like a fireplace, a garage and MY CRAFT ROOM!!!! See that little room on the front to the right labeled “Office/Hobby”?????? That’s my new craft room!!! I’m so excited to finally have a space of my own. It’s just over 12′ x 12′.  I will have room for a yudu and Cricut station. I have been looking for inspiration on the web. I am dying to get designing it.  

The second floor is fabulous. Kenny will finally get my mess out of his closet. He also gets to establish groovy Man Town in the room above the garage. He and his buddies can have their own space to play poker and host fantasy football drafts while I enjoy my craft room or the nice big tub in the master bath in peace. LOL.

Another crazy month…June just flew by. At the beginning of the month, my friend Gracie traveled up from CT to race the Old Sandwich Road Race with me. It was fabulous. The course was beautiful. It was a hot and muggy day but that didn’t dampen the majestic beauty of this historic town road.

The staging area was at beautiful Ellisville Harbor Park. The race started at 8:45 am so we didn’t have to rise too early to get to the starting line.

Isn’t Gracie so cute in her matching shirt and skirt? I wasn’t sure that I would need to bring my hydration on the course but I’m glad I did. The race director did a great job with the water stops but I think they could have added a few because it was such a hot day.

The course actually started on the dirt portion of Old Sandwich Road. The course was a little bit more effort but you were rewarded with lots of shade on this hot day.

And we were off! I spent the first 3 miles with Gracie but then we parted ways. My dear ole hammy doesn’t allow me to walk then start running again without protest. Gracie told me to go so I did but miss having her company.

Once the majestic dirt portion ended, you hit the horse stables near my in-laws house. They were so pretty! My mother-in-law was waiting outside her house to greet me with some nice cold water. Bless that woman!!!!

Gracie fought through a tough race and I managed to get back on the course to run the last quarter mile with her! It was awesome. She had made some great friends from CT on the course who kept her company. Overall, the race was fabulous and I would do it again. The only thing we missed were FINISHER MEDALS!!!! It would have been nice to celebrate our accomplishment with some fantastic bling. Maybe Craig will listen and have bling next year. :):):)

Let me introduce you to my friend Greg. When not defending our liberties, he takes his own with fashion.

Greg is now overseas serving our country. His fabulous wife Steph has been keeping us informed with his needs and wants for care packages. So, I finally got all the items I wanted to send over. I was quite amazed at what I could fit in the Large Flat Rate box to send over to him. Water toys, danish, gummy penguins, over three pounds of Oreos, beef sticks and a few other items all fit in the box. I didn’t get to fit all the water toys in this one so the rest of them will go in the second one that I plan to send over for the Fourth of July. I also made him this card because he’s fond of loud prints. So between him and Nichole over at Papertrey Ink, I had plenty of inspiration for this card.

He truly is one of a kind. I hope the package makes it way to him fast and safe.

I used the Papertrey Ink stamp sets On My Couch and Background Basics Retro. The new couch dies are so awesome! I loved using them with the stamps. I hope he enjoys the card and the package.

Disney’s Princess Half Marathon is a great race. The course’s entertainment is fabulous. The energy from the almost all-women event is amazing. We gathered at the staging area for some fun and laughs before heading to the corrals.

There were tiaras and so many princess costumes all over! It’s so fun to see everyone ready to run 13.1 in princess gear.

The race starts in the cover of darkness but then it lightens up. The castle comes just before the mile 6 mark. Even though we were making great time, we stopped for photo opportunity at the castle.

I love this shot. It’s so fun! The weather wasn’t quite what is was last year. It was much cooler this year, very similar to our freezing January races but a tad milder.

The first part of the race always seems so much shorter. You have the adrenaline from the start, then the excitement at the Magic Kingdom Parking Lot, the Transportation and Ticket Center, then you have the Magic Kingdom with the castle. On your way back, it’s kinda lonely for a few miles but I guess that’s just a reason to run faster right?

This race was a really fast race for me. I shattered my old half marathon time by about 6 minutes for a new PR of….1:50:38!!!!

I knew I had shattered it coming around to the 13 mile mark. I tried not to look at the mile marker clocks as the race went on. I just wanted to run as fast and hard as I could after leaving Jill at the 7 mile mark. The strategy paid off!

The finish was awesome. They have Minnie and Mickey in their royal outfits, along with the Princesses.

Jill and I were the first two princesses to finish so we had some time for photo opportunities with the other princesses.

As the group started to trickle in for the race, we had a great time just refueling and hanging out in the sun.

It was a fabulous weekend!!! Lots of laughs and fun. I don’t know if I will be able to participate next year because Disney change the race weekend but I hope I can.