Thursday Thoughts

Yesterday my orchid bloomed. That's a good sign that spring is here.

What's your favorite part of spring?

The Roller Coaster

It was a roller coaster of a weekend. It started on Saturday with a really good track meet. The kids had been practicing hard and I personally thought they had a lot of talent, but seeing it in a meet setting was a pleasant surprise. I think it's going to be a great season and for several seasons to come.

The good times kept rolling as my beloved Buckeyes made their way into the final four. Yay!!

But then things came crashing down. My family's dog, Oreo, who had been deteriorating for several month jumped out of her cage at the vet's office and couldn't walk anymore. The vet x-rayed her and she had a tumor in her stomach and her last two vertebrae were virtual nonexistant. My dad made the tough choice to put her down. I cried my way through dinner. We've had Oreo for 15 years. My dad buried her today.

Sunday had an upswing, though. I finally made it through a 20 mile training run. I ran 4 miles from my house to the school where I met my dad. He ran 12 miles with me and then I ran the 4 miles home. Total run time was around 2:48. I'm so glad to have the last long run (and my only long run) done.

Now it's Monday and there are only 14 working days until the marathon. I'm hoping for smooth sailing for the next several weeks.

Elite Eight, Baby

Oh. My. Gosh.

Thursday Thoughts

Here we go!

What's the next book you plan on reading?

March Madness

Countdown: 37 hours until the awesomeness!

Calling All Stayput Sisters!

If you are a member of Team Stayput for the 2007 season, send me a note (meredith-gordon@insight.rr.com) or leave me a comment. We should keep tabs on each other and offer words of encouragement and help motivation and send congratulations. If you have a blog, I'll add you to my blogroll.

Hope to hear from y'all!

Thursday Thoughts

It's finally Thursday (I know you're excited too!), which means it's time for Thursday Thoughts. I've had some new commenters this week who hopefully will be coming back, so I'll explain "the rules" again.

I'll ask a question and you answer it in the comments. Pretty easy! If you would like after you answer the question, you ask another question for the next commenter to answer. It's fun, interactive, and did I mention fun?! Let's shoot for 10 comments today!

What is the most amazing thing that has happened to you this week?

Kinda Sad

A recent graduate of the school I coach at committed suicide this past week. His funeral was last night. As I drove past the church where the funeral was held, there wasn't an empty parking spot. In fact, the cars were parked along the street, in neighboring driveways, just about anywhere. And this is a pretty big church. I did not know this person, but the scene really affected me. Here was a kid who thought he was so alone and troubled by so much that his only escape was to kill himself, and yet there were hundreds who did care.

Tell someone you care about them today. You never know how much that other person might need to hear it.

Speed Demon

Not to jinx it, but I think spring is on its way. The weather is getting warmer, the snow is almost completely melted, and the sun is out a little longer (thank you for changing that one, dudes in Congress!). And the big Boston Marathon is 5 weeks away, which means I need to put my wheels in motion and pull in some big miles and some serious speedwork.

Yesterday's scheduled workout was 8 miles with 5 X 600 at 5K pace. It turned out to be a little bit different. The girls team was running 5 miles and we decided to push them. With the warm-up and the cool-down I had done 6 miles right around an 8:00 pace. Then I started on my 600s which should have been at a 7:00/mile pace which would be 2:38. The first one was a little quick--2:16. Yikes! The remained four were 2:29, 2:28, 2:31, 2:30. I finished the day with 9.25 miles. I didn't have really high expectations for Boston, but maybe I shouldn't settle so quickly.

In other news, I googled Team StayPut this morning to see if anyone else had a blog and had written about it. And I found this one. Yikes! She's like a serious athlete. Dude, I'm seriously not worthy!

Thursday Thoughts

In case you missed it, there was a HUGE MegaMillions jackpot this week....

So, what would you have done with the $390 million payout?

Really Big News!

Oh my gosh! I'm sponsored!

I got sponsored by Team StayPut, presented by Goody®. From my materials: "The role of the Team StayPut athete is to promote their sponsor by wearing branded apparel and Goody products during workouts and competitions. The dedicated athletes of Team StayPut not only take top honors in races across the country, but they also act as brand ambassadors for Goody in their local communities. Their success both on and off the course is due in part to Goody's revolutionary technology, which holds hair better than traditional accessories. The 2007 team train and compete while wearing Goody products; all of which allow athletes to easily move and manage their hair. Good is an industry leader in hair care technology and is the number one choice among consumers worldwide." Check out Goody's website and the team's website.

I am so excited! I applied on a whim and really didn't think I was good enough to get accepted. And I got a ton of hair so this is a perfect sponsorship for me. :)

First Day of Spring

Today is the first day of spring and it's sure going to feel like it...high temp. today, 25 degrees.

And now you say, today's not the first of spring Meredith?! Well it is for me. Today is the first day of spring track practice, and I have no idea what this is going to bring. For the first time in 6 years I have other coaches helping me. The team is very young too so there's lots of room to improve. And if I can get them to wear hats and gloves, practice should go smoothly. :)

Thursday Thoughts

Here we go: Thursday Thoughts!!!

What is the best burger joint in your town?

A Pair of Hooters

Two nights ago Dave and I crawled into bed and heard this hoot, hoot, hoot sound outside. I said, "What was that?" And Dave was like, "I think it's a car." But it continued and was very rhythmic. So we got up and looked out the blinds. Low and behold on the roofs of two houses behind ours were two owls. Big owls!

Where did they come from? Dave and I live in a big neighborhood with about 300 houses in a giant field. Surrounding that field, though, is strip mall after strip mall, after big shopping areas. There's not even any trees around. Even so, it was really cool.