My apologies

Dear sadly neglected readers, I would like to ask your forgiveness for abandoning the blog and leaving you with nothing to read (ha - I'm sure you've all found lots of interesting things to read). I've been working on some new projects (pictures coming soon). Updates:

• Running is going well. I ended the Blarney run with a time of 32:30. It was fantastic and it felt good despite the windy day. I ran with Steve and Kristi. They both finished ahead of me and did a great job!


• Guitar is going so-so. I have almost mastered "Need You Now" by Lady Antebellum.


• Sewing has taken center stage at the moment. You'll see the project soon. I promise.

Here are some fun other blogs I've found in the mean time for you to check out:

• Can you tell what my new hobby has been?


• How cute is this?


• If you haven't read my friend Kalie's blog, Tales of Wanderlust, in a while, then you're missing out!

New project pictures coming soon!

FYI - Gary's Gallop is this Saturday! Come run with me :) I'm hoping to break last year's personal best!

Full of Blarney!

What a crowd we had! I don't just mean the nearly 1,000 people at the 19th Annual Blarney Run/Walk, but I met up with/saw so many people I knew! I found Sarah (pink bandana) before the race like we planned, and she had her friends Josh and Becky with her (see attractive people on the right in the photo below).

I also met up with my friend Rulena from church and she started the race with us. Sarah had never done a 5K before, but she did a great job finishing at 34 minutes flat (according to the official posted results thanks to the Badgerland Striders). I finished just ahead of her at 32:42. Becky, Josh and Rulena all finished in the 20's.

The race was very hilly along the Underwood Parkway and Swan Boulevard. I had a very slow first mile because you really had to jockey to get to an open space to hit your stride. The second one was downhill but I got a stitch in my side so I could really lengthen my stride too much. The third mile was mostly uphill and that really divided people. You could tell who still had some fire in them and pushed through strong. Others gave their all in the first two miles and got passed by the fired-up people. I can gladly say that I finished strong and passed quite a number of people in mile three. I was hoping to finish faster, but oh well. Next time!

Pros of the event: it was well-organized, I had lots of friends to run with, great cause, good food afterward, clear results and had great volunteers! The Wauwatosa Historical Society raised about $20,000 for their projects including the roof on the Kneeland Walker House which is leaking badly (HINT! HINT!).

Cons of the event: uphill last mile, bottleneck at the turnaround and the finish line, people who don't know how to line up for a race.

The pros win (as they always do).

Luck o' the Run

I just looked at my last month's entry and CANNOT believe I let this go this long. I faithfully maintain another blog for my day job, and am sorry to have left this blog alone for nearly a full month. However, the timing of the run/walk events is practically exactly a month a part since this Saturday, March 13 will be The 19th Annual Blarney Run!

I have never been what you call a "lucky" person since I don't really believe in luck, but this all just seems a little coincidental. A run scheduled to be a part of St. Patrick's Day, a holiday where we celebrate a lot of everything about a country where people are stereotypically superstitious, on the 13th? I really hope 13 turns out to be my number on Saturday! I REALLY want to break the 30 minute mark, but we'll see.

So, how about some information on the race? It's the same starting spot as the 8K that I ran last month so no worries about finding it, and the course is very similar. Downhill, uphill, downhill, uphill, finish! Why is the finish line always uphill? Can't it be flat?

The Blarney Run/Walk is set up as a fundraiser for the Wauwatosa Historical Society, which is housed in the Kneeland Walker House (about a block from my family's house). The WHS does many wonderful things for the city including holding the history of Tosa, maintaining a library of records, revitalized the Little Red Store (which has a community bike rental program coming this summer!), and restoring the beautiful murals hidden behind the walls of the original entrance to Wauwatosa High School (now Wauwatosa East High School). These are only a few of their projects. They just had an event on some of the founding families of Wauwatosa that I went to with Mom, Debbie, and Kathy and learned all about the Hart's, Wheeler's, Warren's, and that where our house is used to be a lake. Who knew?

A new and exciting development is that one of my childhood friends (Hi Sarah!) has now taken up running and is going to meet me at the race! While we're not sure if we'll be on pace with each other, we can at least start the race together. Correct me if I'm wrong Sarah, but her goal this year is to run a marathon! A MARATHON! I'm so impressed! I don't know if she remembers this, but when I was a kiddo and had a bunch of surgeries on my foot, Sarah was a very good friend and patiently walked around my block with me while I re-learned how to walk. At the time, we were just two little girls being silly and taking walks, but really, it was a great way to do physical therapy and we probably didn't even notice it. Now we get to run a race together! Hopefully, I'll remember my camera and we can snap a few photos to share with you all.

As always, I'll report back after the race on Saturday and let you all know how it went. Hopefully, I'll have some good news about my time! Thanks to all my friends and family who keep an eye on this blog. It's fun to share this challenge with you!

Because it would feel wrong not to say it, wish me luck!

Found two new races!

Hello all!
I was reminded today at my Alumni Committee Meeting that Gary's Gallop Run/Walk is coming up in April. I love this race because a) it's for my alma mater Wisconsin Lutheran College, b) I think the race director does an awesome job, c) I get another WLC t-shirt, and d) the last 100 yards are a dash across the football field at the Krauss-Miller-Lutz Outdoor Athletic Complex!

There is a 5K run (first mile is down hill!), a 2-mile walk, and a kids' dash after the 5K. They are so cute! You can check out photos of last year's race here. The race attracts about 300 runners and walkers, families, Warriors (that's us WLC folk) and friends! All proceeds go toward WLC's athletic booster organization, the Warrior Club. So far, GG is the only race that I have planned that I've done before. Hopefully, this won't make me to sure of myself and that I can keep a good pace.

I knew I wanted to do Gary's Gallop, but I honestly couldn't remember whether it was in April or March, but now that I know, I was stumped about which race to run in March. Thanks to this handy-dandy site called Running in the USA, I found The Blarney Run.

The Blarney Run is held every spring in Wauwatosa on the weekend nearest to St. Patrick's Day. This 5K has a course for runners and a shorter course for those who want to walk. Like Gary's Gallop and the Steve Cullen Healthy Heart Club Run, parts of this race will be run on the Wil-O-Way Underwood Parkway. I think my favorite part of this race is that the kids' race is called the Twinkle Trot! All proceeds from this race go to helping the Wauwatosa Historical Society.

Anyone want to join me for the races? The more the merrier!