A Challenger Appears: moreyarnplz!

[GingaNinja]

Sorry to hear about your sinus infections, it does sound very frustrating I hope you feel better soon!

 

Your not being a nag by telling him you need a bit of help with making better food choices, good on you for thinking of having the talk with him. I am sure yot can work things out and once the air is clear things will get easier!

[Terinatum]

Hey, moreyarnplz, how was your weekend?

[moreyarnplz]

Well. I'm still sick. We're still getting tons of rain, and it continues to stir up the high pollen. I've finished my course of antibiotics and steroids, but I can still feel the congestion in my chest and ears. No amount of Sudafed is breaking this crud up. My doctor wants me to get a CT scan of my head to see if there are any sinus abnormalities that might benefit from surgery (eek!), but our insurance may not cover it until I've been seen for longer.

So, for my second week, I think I did pretty well! Food is still my rough area, and while I don't want to be too hard on myself since I am doing better than before, I know that it's only my fault when I don't make my goals. I'm cooking and eating healthier breakfasts and lunches more than four times a week, and dinner is progressively switching from restaurants to meals cooked here. I'm drinking water almost exclusively now. I fill up my jug every morning and pour 20 ounces at a time into a Nalgene bottle. When I'm out of the house, I carry both with me. I've had a couple fountain sodas, mainly because the caffeine helps with the headaches I get from the antibiotic, but they just taste like syrup now. As for running, I've been doing very light jogging. This weekend I have the Tower of Terror 10 Miler, so I'm walking on the treadmill during the week so my legs (and everything else) will be ready to go. 

 

On an awesome note, we found a house! We've already haggled on the price and had the inspection done. Yesterday we requested that a few small repairs be made by the seller before we buy, but I believe they were already aware of the issues and don't have a problem doing it. The last day of our contract is October 24, but it looks like we may be able to close before that. I'm very excited for several reasons. It has a pool, so I can swim whenever I want. It's on 1/3 acre (unheard of in many parts of Tampa) and the entire backyard is a garden. It's one story, so my arthritis won't yell at me when I need to go into the kitchen or something. And it's right around the corner from a long trail that's awesome for walking, running, and cycling. Due to that, I used my few seconds of bravery to join a local running group!

[moreyarnplz]

Hey, moreyarnplz, how was your weekend?

It was spent desperately trying to clear my lungs out, unfortunately. But I'm still doing what I need to do!

[Terinatum]

A house?!?!?!

That's awesome, and it sounds perfect. 1/3 acre in Tampa is pretty amazing. I'm so happy for you.

I really hope no surgery will be required. Let me know how things go this week, yea?

Hugs

T

[alienjenn]

have you ever tried a neti pot?

 

I use this one 

 

 

I used to be on antibiotics 7-10 times a year for sinus infections... now when I feel one coming on I use mine a couple times a day (and I use tea tree oil in it) and I have only had 2 sinus infections this year... much improved

[moreyarnplz]

have you ever tried a neti pot?

 

I use this one 

 

 

I used to be on antibiotics 7-10 times a year for sinus infections... now when I feel one coming on I use mine a couple times a day (and I use tea tree oil in it) and I have only had 2 sinus infections this year... much improved

I have, and it never did much good. It seems to keep inflammation down in my nose and sometimes my face, but my ears still feel like they're trying to kill me.

[alienjenn]

It took a while (like almost a year) before my ears caught up to my face. ... and the tea tree oil really helped. ...

Hugs!

[moreyarnplz]

I was only going to update once a week, but I feel like bragging. Since we're moving into a new house by the end of next month, I realized how much STUFF we have in the freezer and pantry. I don't want it all to go to waste, but I don't want to keep a bunch of unhealthy crap just for the sake of it. I also don't want to cart a ton of food to the new place. So I strapped my poor teething six month old (omg he's six months old today!) to me in his ErgoBaby sling and took the kitchen to task. I only kept a small thing of candy for my daughter - thankfully she's not really into sweets often. Everything that was junk food or just old or whatever got tossed. I made a really good dinner last night using flash-frozen chicken breasts and frozen vegetables. I made bacon for breakfast, so I reserved the fat and used that while cooking the veggies. Instead of tossing the leftover chicken breast and garlic green beans, I put all the leftovers in a container and was able to quickly heat it up for lunch. 

 

It's a small thing, but at the same time, it's a BIG thing. It took a while to cook the chicken from frozen, but I was in the kitchen less than twenty minutes total while making two full meals. Holy balls!

[keannis]

Brag away! I love bragging when it's about stuff like that!

[Terinatum]

I'm with Keannis. Brag away!!

You're doing great!

[moreyarnplz]

The 10 miler was this past Saturday, and guys, I'm not even sure how to pull myself out of the funk I'm in because of it. 

 

Now, before I start here, I'd like to point out that yes, I'm in the midst of a great big ol' pity party. I know I stuck it out and finished, and I know I have the medal, and I know I should be proud because everything went wrong for the entire day and I still finished and that's a big deal. But the truth is, it was a horrible day all around, and I'm not ready to be cheerful about it yet. But hey, for fun, here's a handy list of JESUS HOW DID THIS DAY EVEN HAPPEN.
 

• I collect Disney pins, so I always pre-order ones for the runDisney events I'm in. Normally I order when I register for races, but I forgot to this time around since I had deferred from last year. Still, I ordered ahead of time, it went through, no big deal. runDisney didn't have that information for me on their end when I picked up my bib. Hey, these things happen. I'm directed over to a volunteer who is dealing with various issues people are having with the commemorative items. Everyone else is walking off with pins and such, so I figure I will as well. Nope. They still can't find the information saying I'd pre-ordered. My phone (which I can't wait to break into a thousand pieces because I HATE YOU SO MUCH IPHONE) decided this was a good time to get stuck in a reboot cycle. Once that finished, I couldn't search through my email or Active's website to find my receipt. Over an hour later I find it, there's a different volunteer at the commemorative items help booth thingie, and she won't give me my pin. Eventually I realized it was either deal with the $15 or so loss, or cause a huge scene in front of my kids. I went with the latter, but I'm still annoyed about it.
• Get to the hotel around 1:30 pm. They have no record of my reservation for the night. They don't have any rooms available for that night, either. Again, my iPhone/mobile carrier combination decides my day has been easy enough and refuses to search through my mail, either on the web or on the app. Can't find the confirmation number, didn't think to print it at home, no hotel room. 
• After eating a quick, completely unsatisfying meal, I reserve another hotel room two miles from the original one. We get there, and they can't find the reservation. I let my husband take over because I'm just freaked out buy all this little stuff going wrong. They don't have the reservation on file, but thankfully I thought to leave the app with the confirmation number open. My iPhone can't thwart me this time, and the hotel agrees to gives us the room. They don't have what I reserved open, and I'm death glaring the poor guy at the desk by this point. We're bumped up to a larger room with a little "kid's suite" in it. Finally, something has gone right.
• Call the sitting service to let them know we're staying at a different hotel with a very similar name, two miles away from the original one. The lady I'm speaking with asks me several times for my name, the hotel we're staying in, and asks if I know which sitter we're getting because they can't find the reservation. Again. She apologizes by saying that they just have a lot of reservations for that night. Finally I ask if they have available sitters for short notice. Yes, they do! WELL THEN WHAT DOES IT MATTER, JUST GIVE ME A SITTER PLEASE. Oh look, she finds my reservation! I give them the name, address, and phone number of this hotel, as well as our room number, the building that the room is in, what's nearby, and tell them to have the sitter call or text once she's there so that we can let her in, since you need a room key to get into the building. They read all this back to me and say the sitter will be there by 7:45. 
• At 7:41, the sitter calls. She's at the front desk and has asked for me by room and name. No one by that name is staying in that room, they've told her. She's at the wrong hotel. She's gone to the one we originally planned to stay. I roll my eyes because I specifically told the services about this, but I figure she's only a couple miles away. No big deal. We have time. I even have a moment to take a running outfit selfie! Everything's fine!
• At 8:00, the sitter calls. Where are we, again? What's the address for the hotel? She can't find it. I explain again. I give directions, which are seriously "turn right from there, go down the road two miles, turn right into the hotel parking lot". 
• At 8:14, one minute before we're supposed to be on a bus to get to the race, she calls again. Can I text her the address?
• At 8:30, my husband tries calling her. No answer.
• At 8:35, my husband calls the sitting service. They're surprised to hear she has not arrived yet. Don't panic, they'll get in touch with her.
• At 8:38, the service calls my husband. The sitter isn't answering her phone. Yes, they realize that she's nearly an hour late. Yes, they understand that we're now late and getting to the race on time is extremely important. They will get another sitter.
• The sitter texts us around 9. She's there! Of course she's gone to the lobby and asked for us and they're not letting her in without a key card and they're hesitant to let her in without calling us. Husband goes to escort her to the room. Turns out her car broke down and she had to get a ride. While waiting, she didn't think to call us. Or her employer. Whatever, no time. 
• We're already 45 minutes late for a bus. We should be in our corrals by now. Instead, we're in traffic. Until 10 pm. We're getting on the bus as the race starts.
• We finally get there. Cast members are telling us different ways to go. People who watched the first corral go are laughing and saying, "Hey, you're late HARHARHAR!"  because we don't know that. One cast member says that the last corral has already walked down to the line, and there's really no way we'll make it. It's a good ten minute walk. I decide I don't want to do it. Too much has gone wrong today, my brain is fried. We tried really hard to make it on time, but now maybe we could instead just go to the party, ride a couple things, have a beer, then go back to the hotel. My husband says I've worked too hard to not do it. We sprint that ten minute walk and get into the last corral, right in front of the pacers. We're supposed to be two corrals up. That would've given me a 10 minute buffer. Now I absolutely have to keep the minimum pace. I've already wanted to quit, so I know this is going to be terrible. 
• Everyone in the last corral has decided to walk like ten people across. I can't get ahead of anyone without weaving and shouting ON YOUR LEFT...HEY SERIOUSLY EXCUSE ME ON YOUR LEFT PLEASE several times and then just barreling through. I get ahead of the pacers enough that by the first mile marker, I'm two minutes ahead of pace. Hey, great. That was slower than usual for me, but if I keep it up, I'll stay ahead. If I can get enough energy for negative splits, even better!
• LOLOLOLOL I thought things were going to get better. My toe gets stepped on as I'm taking a step. Pretty sure something is broken. I want to stop. I don't.
• Right after the 5k mat, I eat a gel, drink some water, and I figure maybe I can jog a bit to bank some more time before my toe starts to hurt worse. So I'm trucking along, and then the two people in front of me stop. They don't slow down. They don't move over to the right and then stop. They just completely stop in front of me and other people trying to jog through. I smack into them, and someone smacks into me. My left knee gets all twisted and cracks loudly. Great. It immediately feels swollen, and it hurts to put pressure on it. Okay, I'm done. I'm really done. I want to stop now. Husband asks if I can make it to the medical tent for Biofreeze and see how it feels. I can, but I have to walk. I'm now hurting, I'm losing time, and I'm angry that I didn't just go to the party.
• I see the med tent, but I also see the balloon ladies. If I stop for Biofreeze, they're going to pass me - it'll be over. I know I should stop. I'm not just not in it mentally - I'm hurt. But I can't make myself do it. I'm halfway there, and I've tried so hard. I keep going.
• At mile 6, I can hear the balloon ladies. I know they're trying to be encouraging to those around them, but it's sounding condescending to me. I want to pop their balloons. I pull a Kaylee and say out loud, "To hell with this. I'm gonna live!" and start running. No one else starts running, I can't get around because apparently no one's heard that walkers should be on the right, and I'm forced to walk.
• Everything hurts. I'm near tears, and I hear the balloon ladies say that we have one minute to get to the mile 8 marker. If not, we get swept. I want to be swept, honestly, but how can I tell people that I got swept with just two miles left? I push around people and make it on time. There's a bicycle medic near me who says that we won't be swept in the park since we'll be off the closed roads. Mile 8 is right by the property, so I have no qualms about walking from there on out. 
• Yeah, except then the balloon ladies passed me, and I felt terrible. I'm not that far behind the minimum pace, and I wouldn't even see them if I'd started in the correct corral. But it's the point of the thing. I'm so angry at the situation and at myself that I tell my husband I don't even want to go to the party afterwards. I just want to go back to the hotel. He's concerned since he knows I love Tower of Terror and always want to ride it, and I was looking forward to the night for months. 
• I walk across the finish line, and again, someone decides to just stop. My knee is screaming because I have to quickly sidestep them. My net time was 2:48-ish. Over twenty minutes over what I'd anticipated, and well over the time I needed to use it as a proof of time for better corral placement in upcoming races. 
• The very worst thing happens. I get my medal, and I feel nothing positive. I should. It took everything in me to start that race in the first place. It took more than everything I thought I had in me, both physically and mentally, to finish. My husband, who literally did not train a bit, is a little sore, but he's fine. I, who had worked my ass off to get there that night, ended up with a broken toe, a screwed up knee, numb feet, and IT band pain. I don't care that I finished anyway. I hope I feel that way later, but right now I'm really concerned about the half in January. What if my knee is royally screwed up and I have to put off training? There's a very real chance that I just blew my goal because I didn't listen to myself.

Okay, wall of text and all. But I needed to vent. I want to be proud of myself, but honestly, I can't. Not yet. I can barely walk. I've been looking forward to that day for so long, and everything went wrong. Now I need to go see a doctor, I can't run (which was one of my goals for the challenge), I may not be able to do the 5k at the end of this month, I probably need different shoes...just SO MUCH happened. And it's killing me that it's all I can focus on. I know I should be proud, but I can't be. 

 

So, in an attempt to end on a more positive note - my six month old was asleep when we got back to the room. My five year old was awake (we said she could stay up) but tired and said the sitter was very nice. Even if my knee is hurt, we're moving into a house with a pool. I can swim. We'll be right near a long trail - my husband is buying me a bike to celebrate finishing the race. i can still do something. And I was so stubborn by the end of that race, I probably would've asked if I could finish by walking on the side of the road and not getting a medal. Probably not the smartest move for someone actually hurt, but it's good to know that I have that in me.

[LiserFrenche]

I am so sorry you had such a rough day and race.  I hope your knee and toe feel better soon.  (((hugs)))

[keannis]

Oh my gosh, what a terrible day! I'm so sorry everything went so wrong! I would have given up; I am so impressed that you stuck it out to the bitter end. 

 

I hate to hear that getting your medal wasn't the moment of pride and happiness that you'd hoped for, but just know that I (and I'm sure everyone else reading this) am damn well impressed. I hope your toe's okay (or easily healable); I hope your knee's okay (or easily healable); and you rock. 

[alienjenn]

HUGS

 

 

sorry everything was so crappy

[moreyarnplz]

Okay, so my knee still hurts, but KT Tape is helping tremendously. I feel better now. I mean, I was seriously the last person to get there, and I still finished before almost a thousand people!

[Terinatum]

I hope you don't get too worried or weirded out by 'not being happy' about the race. You have an important thing on your plate now that you had no idea would be there. It needs attention and you are likely focused more on that than celebrating a hard race. I get the sense you may be a practical person for the most part. Yes? lol

You accomplished a great deal that day, but it's difficult to be happy about the good thing when you consider all that went wrong that you weren't in control of that day. I'm glad you survived it and I truly hope your body recovers completely. Don't be hard on yourself. You're doing fine.

[GingaNinja]

I am sorry to hear your knee is acting up, take care! Remember you are doing an amazing job and sometimes things can seem a bit bitter sweet or you feel like you didn't do you best. Those are your doubts talking, really you are doing awesome! 

[Terinatum]

Where's the yarn!?

[moreyarnplz]

Where's the yarn!?

Packed up! We close on the new house a week from Friday, so I'm ridiculously busy. For added fun, I'm currently taking four classes this semester, which all started on different dates, so I'm having to juggle what's due when. And I still have another class that starts tomorrow.

[Terinatum]

Oh my F'ing god! You are crazy busy.

 

I will send you good energy in hopes that it helps you with the closing. They can be a pain, I hear.

 

Are you getting an once of alone time to recharge?

[moreyarnplz]

Hoo boy. I've been checking in on the boards but not really posting much lately. We had to get our contract for the new house extended for a couple of weeks, so we'll be closing on November 5. My stepmom's dad passed over the weekend, so I've been dealing with that on top of trying to get this house packed, cleaned, and on the market.

 

I'm proud of what I've accomplished so far. I'm drinking more water than ever, which seems to be the biggest change. I'm looking forward to joining the scouts as I'll be a mile away from a running trail. I'm also going to take up cycling. I'm also looking forward to refining my diet a lot more. Right now we've been desperately trying to get rid of what we have, and several times that meant eating stuff I knew I shouldn't, but I figured it was still a *little* better than eating McDonald's or something. 

[alienjenn]

I love me some cycling!!!