November 22, 2013

Free Friday

Thanks so much for all of the book ideas yesterday! My library queue is now long enough to last me at least a year or two ;)

All the rain we've gotten makes it feel like April. This morning, I woke up to more rain. After getting the kids off to school, I was trying to stall before heading out for my long run. I was hoping that the rain would die down a bit to give me some time to run without getting soaked. I like to run in the rain if it's a short run, but when it's longer than four miles or so, my feet get wet and that's not fun.

Finally, at around 10:30, I decided to just go, even though it was still raining. I always forget about the jacket that I got from the Women Rock MN half-marathon, but it's a good jacket for the rain. Very light-weight and water resistant. So I threw that on over my shirt. It took me about five minutes to get ready, and by the time I stepped outside, the rain had become just a drizzle. Much better than big fat rain drops! I planned to do an eight-mile out-and-back route, keeping my pace between 9:15-9:30 ish.

Thankfully, the wind wasn't bad today. While I was running, I thought a lot about my friend, Sarah. She's battling advanced melanoma, and recently, she got some bad news. They discovered the cancer had spread to her brain, and she was on chemo for that. She'd had three tumors on her brain, and now she just found out, after stopping the chemo, she has over a hundred. Because of this, she no longer qualifies for the clinical trial she'd been hoping for. Now, they are going to try radiation over her whole body, to try to shrink the tumors and alleviate the pain. I really hope it works for her.

I just feel so sad for her. We were really close in high school (and went tanning together all the time, before we knew how bad it was!). She has two kids who are just a little older than Noah and Eli. Anyway, while I was running today, every time I found myself thinking about how much I'd rather be doing something else, I thought of Sarah. I'm sure she'd give just about anything to be able to walk normally (the original melanoma was on her calf, and the surgeries have made walking difficult), let alone run.

I turned around at mile four and headed back. I think I felt better on the way home than on the way out; my energy picked up a little. By mile six, though, my feet were definitely wet. Once I hit mile seven, I picked up the pace a little to have a sub-9:00 mile. I always like to finish feeling strong!



My splits were ridiculously even, without even trying. After chugging some water, I took a quick shower and headed to the store. I'd forgotten that I had some "Free Friday" coupons downloaded to my Kroger card that were going to expire soon, so I wanted to use them before they expired. Kroger has a coupon every Friday that you can download for a free item. It has to be downloaded that day, but it doesn't usually expire for a month or so.

I had three of them saved up on my card, so I got those things today: a Dole smoothie, a Larabar ALT, and a box of Stacy's toasts... all for free!


I tasted one of the Stacy's Banana Nut crisps, and it was really good! It tasted just like banana bread, only crunchy. They have a lot of calories for a tiny serving, though, so I don't know if I'll be eating those. Jerry definitely will, because he liked them a lot, too. I haven't tried the smoothie or the ALT bar yet.

While I was at Kroger, I saw the perfect long-run treat for today. I have been craving one of these babies for a long time, and I looked for them last week, but couldn't find them:


I love Rice Krispies treats, but I like this brand the best. It's huge (two servings), and the whole thing is 7 PointsPlus. I earned 12 PP on my run today, so I bought it and ate it for an afternoon snack. It was so good!

As lame as it sounds, I'm spending this Friday night with a book and a mug of hot tea. I was in my pajamas at 5:30--and I'm not exaggerating ;)

8 comments:

  1. Enjoy your restful day...you've earned it!

    I'll keep Sarah in my prayers.

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  2. Nothing lame about a good book and hot tea...sounds lovely. :) I'm sorry to hear about your friend.

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  3. Sorry to hear about Sarah. Really does put things in perspective

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  4. A book and hot tea - a perfect way to end a rainy day. My heart goes out to Sarah and her family. I will be thinking and praying for them.

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  5. My heart hurts for your friend Sarah. I recently lost a friend who was my age to cancer, he left behind two young kids, he fought bravely for two years, enduring never ending chemo, a full time job and being a full time dad. In the end, the chemo that ravaged his body made his heart stop. I know it's human nature to want to prolong our lives as long as possible, but after watching what he went through, I don't think I'd opt for chemo, it's just downright ugly. Cancer sucks. I will pray for your friend, her family and all who love her; and think of her when I feel like I can't, because, I can for her.

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  6. The Kroger free Friday coupons are awesome - they are how I discovered Emerald Breakfast on the Go packs, which are one of my favorite snacks now. I think you will like the Larabar ALT bar - it tastes almost exactly like a peanut butter cookie. My Kroger does a poor job of keeping them in stock and I like them so much that I look for them every time I am there so that if they have them I can grab a couple!

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  7. So sorry for your friend, Sarah. I can't imagine how hard that is, and her with two little kids! My Du had his first melanoma on his calf too. They removed it, and did a lymph node biopsy which showed it had not spread. RELIEF! Then six years later he was diagnosed with Stage 4 Prostate Cancer which will ultimately be terminal. He beat one cancer, but he's not going to beat this one I'm afraid. I'm just praying for a little more time with him. Cancer really sucks! I pray for your Sarah and for my Du too, and it's always smart to realize how lucky we are to just have "small stuff to sweat," I used to worry about little things way too much. Now I know save your worries for the BIG stuff, the little stuff will take care of itself.

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  8. I'm sorry to hear about your friend, how awful. Not fair when someone young has such a terrible illness.

    I'm jealous of your running times. I'm still considering myself a beginner - I started running last fall, then kind of gave it up and started again this summer. I feel like I'm such a slow turtle! One of these days maybe I won't be running in the double digits! ;)

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