Thanks for bearing with me with all the inconsistent blogging lately. Things have just been so crazy around here the past week or so. I didn’t mention this on the blog yet, but I started teaching again this month! I agreed to one day a week for now. So Monday nights I’m teaching Group Step and so far it’s been awesome. A little stressful, but that’s my own fault for putting pressure on myself. It will get easier again once I get back into a routine.

Anyways, this post isn’t about me, it’s about Team Challenge!

The past two weeks have been pretty exciting. Two weeks ago we had a certified pilates instructor come in and guide the participants through some great yoga and pilates for runners. Mostly to strengthen and stretch the hamstrings.

The timing was perfect. It pretty much downpoured the entire “class” and then was just an on and off drizzle during our run!

And then this past Sunday (Mother’s Day!), a new friend of mine and 2011 Boston marathoner(!!), Molly, was generous enough to come and talk to the Team about her journey to Boston and about never giving up on yourself.

Her story is pretty incredible – you should check her blog. She recaps all her races from her journey to Boston and how one time she missed qualifying by 17 seconds!!

The Team was pretty enamored with Molly (as was I!) and she stuck around afterwards to run with us. It was a great way to start Mother’s Day!

We even got flowers.

And, even better, I was reunited with 2 of my Vegas participants:

I seriously love these guys. They rocked Vegas and we really created a bond that weekend that will last a lifetime. This program is the bomb. If you ever get a chance to run a race for charity with a team I highly recommend it. It will change your life.

Team Vegas 2010!

The past 2 weeks of training have been the best so far. The participants have made such great progress and we have our longest training run this coming Sunday. We’re so close!

Random question: What’s your favorite flower? Hands down, peonies rock my world.

Hope you had a great day!

Happy Mother’s Day to all the rockin mom’s! My boys were super nice to me today – so nice that I don’t really want the day to end. It was kinda nice being queen for the day.

My day started with a nice run with Team Challenge (where we had awesome weather!) and came home to a little scavenger hunt organized by the boys:

You know you’re a runner when you get new running shoes for Mother’s Day (and don’t even have to ask for them!).

The rest of the day was spent spending time with my own mom. I can’t say enough about her – she’s truly one of my best friends (now that I’ve grown up). It’s taken us awhile to get to this point in our relationship and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m so grateful to have her in my life.

Here are a few of my favorite pics from when I was little:

For some reason my mom always dressed me like a boy (which was weird because I had no hair – you’d think she’d dress me all girly!).

My mom, sis, and me. This was my MOST FAVORITE outfit ever. I remember thinking the lace on top of the shirt was so cool (it was, right?).

And my most favorite photo of all:

I must have had a thing for purple. Check out those ribbons in my hair! The baskets on the bikes are pretty sweet, too. (Sidenote: maybe I was the favorite daughter since my sis isn’t wearing a helmet?? Hehe – how times have changed!)

I hope all you Moms out there had a fantastic day. I think this one was my favorite yet.

Does a specific Mother’s Day stick out to you (for you or for your mom)??

So most of my long-time friends (Jen!) and my parents are going to be shocked when they here what I ate this weekend:

It was my first shrimp/crab boil!

I know, I know, you’re like “This girl has never had crab legs before? Wth!”

I have to admit it. I had never had crab legs until this past Saturday. Something about the texture has always creeped me out. But now I’m slowly starting to dabble into the world of seafood. I mean it when I say slowly. I fell in love with shrimp about two years ago and that has been the only seafood I have eaten until this past weekend.

But when Kimi invited the 3 of us out to her house for her birthday dinner and told me we’d be dipping the food in melted butter there was no way I could say no (come on, we all know by now that I can be bribed with food!). Plus, it was her birthday!!

Isn’t she a doll??

What’s even better, is that now that I’m trying new foods, C is, too. He even wrote a paper at school about edamame (I’d love to know what the teacher thought of that one)! Hehe.

See his hand reaching in there?

Shrimp is still my first love, but these crab legs were a close second. C even went as far to claim crab as his new favorite food!

The best part of this boil is that the food is dumped onto a plastic table cloth and it’s pretty much just a free for all. When everyone is done you simply pull up the dirty table cloth and throw it away! No table to clean up at all. Now that’s my kind of dinner.

Thanks for the hospitality, Kimi!! Happy Birthday!

What about you? Seafood – love or hate or somewhere in between?

I swear, my life is one big competition. For example:

• Whenever we go on a walk C and I have to race to the next stop light, red car, meter, etc. It’s never a nice leisurely walk.
• J and I compete in class to see who can lift more weights. There’s never a “Oh, great job, Babe!”, it’s more like “Crap. She lifted more than me today.”
• My sister and I compete for “favorite daughter” title. My dad actually called me that today (which only happens when my sis isn’t in town, btw – he’s not fooling anyone).

So last week when I was doing some random wall squats (since we had had Angelo’s pizza for dinner and I was feeling 20 lbs heavier than usual), J didn’t waste any time stating I was a wuss for swearing like a trucker during it.

C immediately jumped at the chance and yelled, “Challenge!!!”

And this, friends, is what we do.

It took all of 20 seconds for this to happen:

Yes, he’s sitting on the floor (C took these pics, sorry).

I’m not gonna lie and say this didn’t make me happy.

But then C had to join in the fun.

And try to take his mother down.

Which will never, ever happen.

But I will give C credit – he lasted longer than J! That boy’s got some determination.

I’m pretty sure none of C’s friend’s families do stuff like this. Not sure if that makes us cool or just plain crazy.

Did you ever family “competitions” growing up? We didn’t so I’m not really sure where this came from!