Top 10 Reasons Why Grandma's Marathon Sounds Awesome!

I finally sat down tonight to do a little reading on Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, MN.  After all, the marathon is this Saturday so I figure it might be helpful to know a bit more about the race before race day.  Life has been a little busy lately so marathon training has taken a back seat.  However, after reading about Grandma's, I'm more excited than ever to be running this weekend!  I might not be in condition to run my fastest time but WOW, this sounds like a marathon to have on your must-run marathon list!  This will be my 10th marathon and I can honestly say that out of all the marathons I've run, this one seems to get some of the best reviews.  I've read quite a bit about Grandma's Marathon tonight and almost every review was incredibly positive.  Two Thumbs Up.  Top Notch.  In fact, several of the reviewers that posted compared Grandma's to Boston, New York, Chicago and some of the other marathons that go down as the best in our country.

From my research, here are some of the top reasons to run Grandma's Marathon (I'm sure I'll have plenty to add once I get to run it myself!):

1. ORGANIZATION.  Almost every review I read had something to say about how amazing the organization is in this race.  From aid stations to timing to transportation to emails, this race sounds flawless when it comes to being well organized!
2. Volunteers/Spectators.  It sounds like there is a huge amount of support before, during and after the race.  Reviewers raved about the volunteers and spectators.  As so many of us know, the volunteers really do help to make an event great.  Big time! 
3. Pace Group Leaders.  Many people had such positive words to say about the pace group leaders they ran with.  In fact, this year might be the first year I ever try running with a pace group because of all the positive things I read.  Now, choosing the pace group I'd best fit in might take some thought since I'm not sure where I'm at with marathon fitness right now.  
4. Great Course.  Gentle hills.  Mostly flat.  And Scenic views of Lake Superior.  Sounds like a good PR course.  
5. Great City!  Duluth sounds like a charming city with a BIG HEART! And a city that loves their marathon.  The people sound welcoming and friendly, plenty of fun places to eat at, and college dormitories available to stay in as an alternative to hotels that either fill up quickly or a little overpriced for marathon weekend.  The reviews had great things to stay about the dorms.
6. Depth of Field.  There are runners from all over that are in Duluth to race different distances this weekend.  From professionals to first timers...this marathon is the real deal! 
7. Time of Year.  Running Grandma's means you get to run an early summer marathon with only part of your training in winter.  You still get to enjoy plenty of the hot summer months recovering and enjoying a slower pace and you are able to enjoy many training runs in spring time rather the the depth of winter training that comes with early spring marathons.  
8. Finisher Shirts and Medals sound nice.  
9. Events around the race:  spaghetti feed, concert, speakers....I'm excited about all of this!  
10. MINNESOTA.  Let's face it, we've heard the stories about what these Minnesota locals have to endure during winter.  Long, cold (understatement), brutal winters.  My bets are that they know how to put on a June race with plenty of celebration, Joy, and post race festivities that make the most of summer weather.  They take their summers seriously!  I'm looking forward to celebrating in Minnesota! 

Have you run Grandma's Marathon?  What are your thoughts about the race?  

Amanda

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Bring on Summer Break! And Gratitude and Intentions

Once my kids stopped fighting over who was going to be teacher in a game of school, they actually did some pretty cool stuff!  This collage was done after a nature walk around the yard.  Nice job kids!  

So far, the first morning out of school for summer break has been fighting over who gets to be the teacher when they play school.  Of course, my two alpha children are butting heads as usual.  My five year old insists that he should be the teacher while my oldest at nine is easily outraged and insistent on proving all the things she knows that he doesn't.  This is her way of revealing that the idea of him teaching is ludicrous in her mind.  Meanwhile, my middle daughter ignores them both with her nose in a bird book and probably inventing a cure for cancer without any of us noticing. I finally explain to my oldest that she has to teach in a way that is fun and developmentally appropriate for her little brother instead of making him feel like a complete idiot for not being able to perform long division as a preschooler and permanently damage his self esteem. This was just the first hour of summer vacation.  Things are calm again as they are all engaged and happy but I'm certainly thankful for sports classes, a YMCA, swimming pools and play dates with friends to keep us all sane.

In all seriousness, I'm actually pretty excited about summer.  I've craved this time with my kids where we don't always have to be somewhere and be rushing from one thing to the next: gymnastics, soccer, school, after school clubs, etc. etc.  I'm excited to soak up the next month living in this small town outside of Asheville.  This next months will be filled with:

• walks to the library and bakery
• walks to the Nature Park up the street where we will explore, play in the creek, and make nature an imaginative world while mom sits agains a tree and soaks it all in or reads a book.  
• trips to the Biltmore House
• nights of watching the sun go down and playing tag with the fireflies (can't find fireflies in Oregon)
• mornings on the front porch with the birds 
• gymnastics classes
• movie nights

Lots of memories yet to make.  I'm sure the next month of summer will also involve:

• plenty of sibling fights
• mom losing her mind
• the house in complete disaster...kid forts, toys, spilled messes, the start to moving across the country
• kids asking for more and more screen time and insisting that I'm the meanest mom ever because I won't let them sit in front of the t.v all day and fill their bodies with crap food, etc.  Nah, they don't complain too much but I'm sure we will will have plenty of the crazy stuff that comes with unstructured summer time.  That's life.  
• feeling like pulling my hair out as we get ready to move our family of 5 back to Oregon

So, bring on Summer Break!  I've already noticed that I'm wanting my blog as an outlet a bit more as we transition into this next phase.  What a gift this blog has been the last few years! Writing really is an outlet for me.  Even if nobody reads my blog but me...my posts are for me!  They help me find my truth, process my thoughts, make my goals and intentions come to life a bit more, tell my story, and connect with my world.  Something so therapeutic for me about putting my thoughts and heart into words.  A meditation of sorts.  Similar to running.  

Speaking of running...

I'm running another marathon next week.  What?!  How did this happen that I thought another marathon right now would be a great idea?  Well, after Boston, I was filled with some of the usual feelings that come to me post marathon. Feelings of wanting redemption and running a faster time.  Wanting to build off of all the work I put into training by running another race.  Still being caught up in post marathon euphoria and feeling like I could have done better.  So, I did what any sane marathon runner would do...or what seems to be my pattern over the last few years...I signed up for another marathon just 7 weeks out from the last.  

Let's just say, my focus is not on that personal best that I was craving when Boston was over.  With moving, my husband changing jobs, finding and buying a house in Bend, and all that comes with these big changes, marathon training hasn't been at the top of my priority list.  However, I am very excited to run Grandma's Marathon!  I've heard so many good things about this race and about Duluth, MN.  Plus, one of my favorite girlfriends is driving down from her small town in Minnesota to spend the weekend with me.  I think things are actually working out for the best since this is a pressure free race for me, I'm still in very decent running shape, and I will have 3 nights of girlfriend time with someone I crave time with and don't see enough!  Oh yeah, and since the hotels in Duluth were all booked, we are actually staying in a college dormitory.  We're excited about this!  It will be like we get to be college roommates for a few nights.  Besides not having a bathroom in my room, I'm all for it and I think it will be an awesome memory.  Bring it!  

Gratitude:

• Summer with my kids.  Time goes so fast and I'm excited to have this time with them.
• We signed on a house in Bend.
• Moving to Bend, Oregon
• I get to spend another month in my Blue Ridge Mountain town that I love so so much.  I can focus on the time I have had or how much my heart hurts to leave and I'm choosing to focus on the gift it has been to have had this year.  A piece of me will always be here and a piece of here will always be in my heart.  
• Resources for parents.  There are so many things out there for parents and kids:  library, reading programs, pools, fountains, hiking trails, story time, etc. etc.  Just as I tell my kids that they have no reason to be bored, parents have no lack of choices to do with their kids! 
• My kids finally all found their happy place this morning.  My oldest took my youngest for nature walks, taught him in a way he is ready to learn, and they even made a nature collage.  All while my middle child sat next to me building rainbow loom creations. 
• I get to run Grandma's marathon next week and see a very dear friend who is like a sister.
• Several pieces of writing that I've been working on over the last few years and they seem to be taking shape.  I may never do anything with them but just writing them has been a rewarding process.

Intentions:

• Find one-on-one time with each of my kids today.  Even if it is for only 10 minutes and just sitting on a swing or reading a story...this time matters. 
• Try something new in this area before we leave: a restaurant, new hiking trail, concert, etc. 
• Replace every negative thought that stems from fear  with something positive that comes from love.  Sending messages of what I want and what I know can be mine for life.  I watched Jim Carrey's commencement speech the other night and it was such a good message.  Nothing new but definitely good reminders!   
• Yesterday's thoughts: Intent on slowing down today (and tomorrow...) and tasting life, noticing something or someone new, making eye contact, really talking to someone I might never say hello to and hearing their story, and giving myself with love. "...the only thing we know that we have for sure is what is right here right now. Don't miss it. To use it all up is love." --Leo Buscaglia

1.  What are some of your intentions and things you're thankful for as summer kicks off? 

2.  Have you watched Jim Carrey's commencement speech that everyone is sharing?  Thoughts? It was a message put in a form that was simple and made so much sense.  My favorite part of it was when he mentioned opening the door for what we want in our head, then waiting for that door to come in real life as it is supposed to, and then walking right through it...receiving! 

3.  Do your kids fight?  

Amanda

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Dear Fear: Scram! And Hello to New House and Chapters in Life!

What's up with fear? It's such a sneaky little bugger.  It creeps in and tries to hold us back from so damn much:  starting and following through with our biggest dreams, accepting and flowing with change, trying new things, receiving things we never thought we'd have.  Fear is sly.  Tricky. It disguises itself as rational or safe.  Fear settles.  It keeps us where we are, convinces us we are comfortable and that things are "good enough." It distracts us and says
"You Can't."
"Who do you think you are?"
"Why bother?"
"Think of all the things that could go wrong...aren't you comfortable just the way you are?"
 It seems that when fear creeps in my life, it always takes me at least a little while of feeling paralyzed by it before I realize what's going on enough to ignore it so I'm not held back in my same old life grooves, never to move forward.

6-10-14
Dear Fear,
I've recognized you these last few weeks.  I've even let you to stay awhile.  I've been hospitable and let you take part in our daily activities.  However, I'm ready for you to go.  I want to be present and joyful about this next chapter in life. In fact, I really wish you would stay away for good now.  You seem to make everything else in life seem so much harder.  Impossible even.  There's no place for you in my life if I'm ever going to live the life I know I'm meant to live.  No place at all.  So, I send you on  your way and I hope to find many other things to fill your void: gratitude, goals, love, people and things that inspire, and friends that support, encourage and believe in me.    
Signed,
Me

We signed on a house last night!  In Bend, Oregon.  Yup, things are getting real now.  Since we are currently living on the east side of the country, my husband and I had to fly out separately to look at houses and get a feel for our new home.  Him first.  Then me.  Oh wow, what a process!  I never thought finding a house that I'd spend the next many years of my life in would be so difficult.  Not just because the market in Bend is crazy right now but because somehow, in this process of selecting a home for my family, I've let it define me. I've had to really wrestle with some old ideas of who I am and what I've always imagined for my life and I've had to come to terms with the ever present truth that CHANGE is INEVITABLE. Change is constant.  It can't be avoided.  With life.  With US.  Our beliefs. The way we see the world.  Our children.  The places we end up.  Our jobs.  Change is what life is.  We change.  The things and people around us change.  We can either flow with it, accept it and eventually embrace it or we can fight it tooth and nail and let fear tell us to resist.

I'm ready to accept and embrace.

I'm ready to accept that sometimes what is best for us isn't what we expected. Sometimes, like with the purchase of our new house and moving to Bend, it is MORE than we expected.  It is pretty neat to see how life unfolds just as it is meant to be.  The house we signed on is really like no house I ever saw myself settling in for the bigger stretch of raising my kids.  On paper it fits more than most of the criteria we wrote down on our wish list for a home but in my mind and from looking at it all from the outside, it has taken some readjusting and shift in perspective to get used to the idea. We made a wish list to work with before our home search so working with our realtors would be easier.  On our list was (not in order): a bigger yard, space for the kids to play, a room for each kid and room to have family and friends visit, community, good schools, a house that would be good for entertaining and be the house our kids and their friends would want to hang out at, closeness to running trails, lots of natural light, TREES, and a few other dream things that I knew weren't going to be a for sure thing like charm, front porch, etc.  I've struggled so much with this decision but this is the house we kept coming back to for what fits our family the best even though it took me some time to see it as the house that we would ultimately decide on.

 I'm ready to be happy and stop second guessing it.

Before making an offer, I took a short run along the river trail that is steps from the house.  I tried to soak it all in the best I could. I tried to be calm and not let fear stop me in my tracks.  I'm so thankful for the friends I have in my life that have helped me process these big changes.  One dear friend and old neighbor in Portland was there on that still morning in such a perfect way.  She spoke words that were just what I needed to hear:

"Sometimes over thinking makes it too hard.  If you really think this is your first choice then you should go for it.  If your gut say otherwise, listen to it.  But if fears says otherwise, tell it to off and move forward.  If you let fear make the decisions in the past, you wouldn't have had your wonderful time in North Carolina."

Our house (as soon as closing goes through...that's a waiting process in itself) is bigger than I ever wanted.  It has more space and rooms that we need but not too much that we won't use it.  It is steps away from the river trail system along the Deschutes River where we can run for miles and miles on dirt trail and never have to get in our car.  Although I never saw myself as wanting a community pool or fitness area that comes with a HOA, I'm embracing that too because I know my kids will love it.  There is no old charm, front porch, or deck with a view.  No small town feel like where we live now unless you count walking .7 miles to the neighborhood store/coffee shop but we will be 4 miles from downtown Bend, a city of under 80,000 and just under 3 miles to the popular Old Mill area.  There is really  no real suburbia in Bend...more neighborhoods but definitely more of a suburb feel with where we will live.  But hey, that's a good place for families and eventually we will be at a place in life where living in an old charmer in the heart of a small city or town will make more sense (financially, space, resources, etc.) and serve our needs.  It seems that all the things we wanted for our home and family are coming to be even if it has taken a different form than I imagined.  Some of the best things in my life have happened this way! This is one of the things I love the most about life and we almost always gain wisdom and new insight in the process of shifting and accepting.

We have about a month left here in Asheville, North Carolina. I'm excited!  Today, I'm bagging up my fear and second guessing and I'm setting my sights on the present and the many wonderful things to look forward to!  I'm receiving and giving thanks.

Video of my first trail run near our new house (literally a minute away):

My morning run before making an offer on our new home wasn't much of a run but it did give me a chance to soak things up a bit.  

Intentions for My Now:  

• Be present and soak up these last weeks in a place I love so so much.  
• Accept change and find the good in it without resistance.
• Give thanks for life and this new house, place to live, last year of travel....everything.  Life is good.  So much to be thankful for.
• Be open for new opportunities.  
• Breathe.
• Gear up for Grandma's Marathon in 2 weeks and allow myself to be where I am.  The past few weeks have been much harder than I expected when it comes to training for a marathon.  I'm not sure what I was thinking.  Ha! But I'm going to make the most of it and enjoy my time in Duluth with one of my best friends at an awesome marathon.  
• Think positive and expect the best!!  
• Continue dreaming and believing.  
• Give my son an awesome Ninjago party tomorrow! 

Amanda

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