Iron Girl Seattle

At the beginning of summer a good friend of mine twisted my arm off and said she wouldn't give it back unless I agreed to run the Iron Girl Seattle 5k race with her. Realizing how useless I would be without my arm, I agreed.

So we both started our training using an amazing app called C25K (couch to 5k). I would HIGHLY recommend it. Yes, I have been a couch potato as far as exercising goes, for who knows how long. With that, the only running I can vouch for is the 7th grade track team, running the 100 meter. I was a sprinter, not a long distance runner AT ALL! Whenever we HAD to run the mile for fitness in junior high, I would always have to stop and walk for parts of it because of side aches. I hated it! In fact, I think I faked being sick more than once on the days I knew we had to run the mile.

Well, the summer training payed off and I was able to run my very first 5k race in record time! For some of you, this record time of mine may be slow, but for me it was cause for celebration. Here are the stats:

Out of 1,367 finishers for the 5k race, I was the 341st finisher.
In my age bracket I came in 67th out of 238 finishers.
My finishing time was 32:19.

It was an amazing experience that I will never forget. Thanks LaRee, for lighting that fire under me.
Now into my second week of training for a 10k.
Wish me luck!


Click on picture to view larger:
The day before the race, LaRee and I checked into a hotel a couple of blocks away from the Space Needle and only about a 10 minute drive to the race at Greenlake Park. We were able to pick up our packets that day as well and even enjoyed a nice dinner at a Thai restaurant.

The morning of the race our boys drove Lindsay over (she couldn't come with us, the day before, because she had other plans) and helped with being camera men, videotographers, lockers and valet parkers. Thanks guys!!! We couldn't have done it without you.

Story Generated

                                                                                                  ***this pic was not the actual pic from that day.


Last week as Scott and I took his last ferry ride over to Seattle before hopping on his plane to go back home, we spotted something curious. We saw a ferry that was stopped dead out in the middle of the Puget Sound. It looked like the Coast Guard was attached to it. I then proceeded to text my hubby about the curiousness of it all. Later on he texted me back saying thank you and that I just generated a story for the Kitsap Sun. That was a first for me! To read the story at the Kitsap Sun website CLICK HERE. You may notice they don't list my name as a credit to the story. I guess I'll live. Big sigh!

Dry Spell

So there's been a little bit of a dry spell here at Gardner Villa.
That's what happens when you go on vacation and bring back
one of your favorite nephews for a few weeks of phun!

So, since Scott is still here and I'm ready to hit the sack, I'll
share with you a few morsels until I have more time to
post away all the amazingly fun memories from our summer.