Race Day Tomorrow

It's the night before the Hottest Half tomorrow. We have all our gear ready. Bibs pinned onto shorts and shirts. Racing chips attached to shoes. Water and Gatorade made and refrigerated. Race start and finished scoped out. I'm excited! Gotta rein it in though or I won't sleep. I'll post the results later this week.

Countdown to the Hottest Half Marathon, Dallas, TX

It's t-minus 2 days, 20-something hours, and some odd minutes before the starting gun fires on Sunday morning at this year's Hottest Half! Kevin and I are ready at this point. His foot has healed up good enough that he's done a couple of runs this week, including a 6 miler. With his running history, I'm sure he'll do just fine.

I got a new pair of shoes (see picture at left); I got the ones that have the same coloring as yours, Kayla. They're called "Women's Saucony Grid Cohesion 3 Running Shoes." The previous model was just "Women's Saucony Grid Cohesion NX," which I've purchased around 4 times. They both fit exactly the same only they've changed up the apearance a bit. It's a nice shoe; $39.99 at Academy. My ankles and knees are thanking me!

My LogYourRun account says that I put 286.8 miles on the previous shoes that I bought on 11/11/2009. That's not accurate because I bought new shoes in May 2010, but I just forgot to enter in all of the information. There were also several weeks where I didn't enter in any of my running miles at the beginning of the summer. What can I say? Sometimes it's just good to run and not think about the details. If we do the full marathon in November, these will be the shoes that come with me, I think.

I went on my last run (before the race) last night. I did an easy 3 miles with Kevin and Kaiya. Kevin was on his bike this time. Didn't see any skunks, but we did see an armadillo towards the end of the run. Kaiya wanted to go play, but we thought that might not be a good idea considering they've got some pretty mean claws.

I was very cautious last night with Kaiya. Normally it's expected that Kaiya will stop, without warning, a few times to sniff at something while I'm on a run with her. But I tried to emphasize that random stopping was not a good idea in light of the upcoming race. I could just see myself trip or twist an ankle and that would be the end of it for me. So I tried to give her a wide berth and be a little more in tune with what she's thinking. "Uh uh, Kaiya," "Good Girl, Kaiya," "This way, Kaiya." I'm sure it was cramping her free-spirited style.

[Kaiya] "Why is Mommy micromanaging my life?"

Poor thing!

Run on Allergy Peoples!

Skunks!!!

I went on a 6 mile bike ride (coast) while Kevin ran last night at about 9:30 pm, and we saw a little wild life. Three skunks (which kind of messed up Kevin's run with a jolt of adrenaline) and a bug that squeaked (which scared me to death and I screamed; which also gave Kevin a jolt of adrenaline). Quite funny! ...after the fact.

Gluten Free, Cow Milk Free Coconut Cream Pie

When I asked what Kevin wanted me to bake him for our 4th anniversary, he said "Coconut Cream Pie!!!!" No hesitation. My husband and his family have been in love with this one recipe for forever so I called up his mom and got the specs (thanks Sandy!). The original version is full of cow milk and of course a flour-based pie shell. When it came time to make the pies, Kevin was like, I bet we can use that Pamela's Bread and Baking Mix to make you pie crust and then use goat milk for the filling! I hadn't even thought of making me one because I'm still trying not to focus on new pastry/sweet concoction recipes right now while I'm training for the half.

But we made me a version of the pie, and it's so good! I wish we had bought one of those throw away metal pie pans, because the one pyrex version we had was a little bit big, so the crust might have been spread out too thin and the pie filling didn't fill up the whole space. Other than that, we wouldn't change a thing. Kevin didn't even notice the goat milk taste and thought it was the real thing (although once he ate his version of the pie and went back to mine, he did notice a *slight* difference).

Gluten free, Cow Milk Free, Coconut Cream Pie
Filling:
1/3 cup of Pamela's Bread and Baking Mix
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups goat milk, scalded (microwave for 2 min)
3 slightly beaten egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup shredded coconut

Crust:
I used Pamela's recipe except I used vegitable oil (soy) instead of butter (should be able to use any type of oil) and the recipe on the back of the package suggests refridgerating the dough for 30 minutes before baking. Poke holes in the crust with a fork around all sides and bottom (use a fork, one inch apart).

Mix flour, sugar, salt well in a cooking pot. Gradually add milk. Cook on medium heat until think, stirring constantly. Add small amount of hot mixture to the egg yolks (so not to cook the egg immediately). Stir egg into remaining hot mixture. Cook for two more minutes without stirring. Add vanilla and coconut. Cool and then pour into cooked pie crust.

Makes one pie.

Running update
My ankles and knees are telling me that I need new shoes. Kevin and I will be going to Academy today or tomorrow to pick up another one of my favorite pairs. Not normally supposed to get new shoes right before a race, but I'll break them in on a run on Wednesday and while walking throughout the week, and I've been getting the same pair for forever now and my feet are pretty much molded to shoe.

Also, here's a random word from Kent

"Life is best lived with eyes wide open." -A Word from Kent, mighty mighty Super Dog.

Ha! He's so cute, ain't he?

Gluten Free Breaded Turkey Fingers and More Kayaking

So this past week, Kevin and I tried to make some delish turkey fingers with some of the new Pamela's Bread Mix and Flour Blend that we bought when we were in Dallas at the beginning of the summer, and oh oh they were goo-hood! The recipe called for deep-fat frying, but we decided to just fry them up with a little coconut oil in the bottom of the pan. Oh, they were tasty. As a kid, I'd usually order chicken fingers and french fries where ever we'd go out to eat (since it's quite often a staple kids' food item in most American-style restaurants). I've not missed the calories those meals packed, but I do miss the taste! Next time, we're thinking about baking the turkey (or chicken, whichever one is already cooked) so we can get rid of more oil.

On another note, I was doing some graphic design research for an upcoming project at work and I was looking at the Sonic Web site. I took a quick gander at their "allergen info" link (those things change quite often so it's good to check back every once in a while), and I noticed that their french fries and tots don't have gluten, milk, peanut, egg, or soy ingredients (not that I have a problem with soy or egg, but that's just an FYI for those staying away). Whahoo! Kevin and I might partake of some this evening along with the rest of our fourth anniversary celebration. Yeah us! Love you, Kevin!

On to the kayaking. Yesterday, Kevin and I tried out the single-person kayaks and had a lot of fun. We noticed that we could go a lot faster than in the tandem kayak and we had less, ahem, coordination problems. On the other hand, it's a little more of a solitary activity (even though we were fairly close together most of the time) kind of like jogging. Still had some drama though (hee hee).

Here we are, sitting on the peaceful lake, watching ducks swim by, fish jump, and birds skim the top of the water. Beautiful and relaxing workout. [sigh...] Oh, how wovely and momantic!

Then we head on back to the lakehouse and Kevin decides it would be great fun to chuck a stick at me (piece of rotting something...). I yell out in pain and surpise and give him the bull elephant-death stare characteristic of the "great cap gun incident" of '06 (which was actually our honeymoon). We've come full circle, I know!

Now the average person might say "oh, did that hurt? Sorry I was just trying to be funny. Ready to go back to shore?" This statement shows remorse, gives an explanation, and changes the subject so that negativity is not dwelt upon for too long. Right? Least of all he could have just said, "oops" and then moved on. But that's not what happened.

Kevin chucked another stick.

His explanation: "I wasn't sure if you yelled because of an emotional reaction or because you were actually hurt, so I thought I'd throw another one to find out."

Ha! Sadistic! Cruel! And as I think about it a day later, quite funny. But man did that hurt.

Half-marathon update: Katrina looks to be working through her injury (don't hurt yourself Trina!), Kevin's still staying off of his, and I've completed my last long-long run before the half (did 12 1/2 miles last Saturday morning). Felt good afterwards, and I might have felt better had we not watched Into the Wild later that morning. Depressing beyond depressing. My soul is still healing after someone tried to suck it out of my body and stomp on it. Thanks Trina and Brian!

Kayaking Fun

Okay, so Kevin and I went kayaking for the first time yesterday. Used a two person kayak. Had lots of fun (!!!) except for one aspect.

So it should be pretty obvious that I've got loads slow-twitch muscles...and very little upper body strength. Kevin has long arms; they're strong. And, you have to be in-sync with one another in a two-person kayak.

Kevin and I will be trying out the seperate kayaks next time.

Sad Day for the Running Peoples

Kevin and I visited with Kayla, Terrell, Brian, Trina, and Seth this weekend. We all went on a run on Saturday (minus pregnant Kayla, of course). Kevin and I did an 11-miler (whooo, that was humid and hot, but a lot of fun). Sad news: Trina, the fearless leader this summer, has hurt her achilles tendon and may not be able to make it to the half. We're praying for her right now!