Christmas 2008

At looong last, Christmas came and went. Parker has been counting the days for what seems like MONTHS. She was really into it this year, they did a lot at school regarding the birth of Christ, etc. She 'read' me one of her Christmas books,
"The angel appeared to Mary and said 'you're going to have a baby' .",
"And Mary said 'I can't handle a baby!' "

At least 2 months ago, she picked out what she wanted Santa to bring her - an American Girl doll. She went back and forth about which certain one, but finally decided on Elizabeth after we made a scouting trip to the American Doll store here. It was chock full of little girls with their dolls in tow, waiting to get the doll's hair (!) done in the salon, or to dine in the little cafe...where they have booster chairs for the dolls so they can sit up at the table too.

We were very worried about her changing her mind after the order was placed.....the plan to tell Santa in person fell through. We attended Spaghetti with Santa at her school, and she loved the meal and the live music, but REFUSED to sit in his lap. I offered up every bribe I could think of, but she wasn't interested. On the way home, although I never told her this, that if she didn't tell Santa what she wanted, she wouldn't get her doll. She sobbed "can't we just BUY a doll?" Like, why do we have to go through this middle man, anyway? She was ready to have me turn the car around and go through with it, but I assured her that just writing a letter would be good enough.
We hosted Bob's parents for Christmas. I cooked a fancy dinner Christmas eve and Parker was very amped up, but she went to bed at the appointed time.

Setting out cookies....we left the milk in the fridge until later.

She waited until 7am to come downstairs....and was thrilled to finally get her doll.

Parker and Elizabeth

Gigi (Bob's mom) spent untold hours making doll clothes for Elizabeth. After seeing all she made, I'm convinced that Santa's elves are real, and she's one of them.

Opening the doll clothes

We've been doing photos of the diferent outfits, and we'll post them soon. Here's one:

Matching nightgowns

She's REALLY into the matching clothing thing. It looks like I might have to start sewing soon. We hope everyone had a great holiday. We're going to be busy... Parker only has 6 months to plan her birthday party.

The Strange But True Story of the Amazing Marathon Man

They say the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step....and the journey of 26.2 miles begins with a single step as well.

Last year around this time, Bob decided to take a step in the right direction. He wanted to get in better shape. To lose some weight so his pants would fit better. To make better choices about what he consumed. He started running his usual 'get in shape' amount of 3 miles. I suggest he should push it to 4, and do a longer run on the weekends of about 6. And he liked the idea of maybe doing the half marathon with me in December.

The more he ran, the easier it got and his distances got longer and longer,and soon it became apparent that running an entire marathon would be an achievable goal. He read a book on marathon training, and set up an 18 week training program. And the training program was not an easy road at all...it included running 5 days a week, with increasing mileage. It involved getting up at 4:30am on Tues, Wed, and Thurs to get his runs done before work. Running either on the treadmill or outside in the dark, wearing a orange construction vest at first to prevent being flattened by the newspaper delivery guy. On weekends he pushed Parker in the stroller on runs under 6 miles.

Also along the training path there were challenges - fitting run schedules around crazy work hours, a very unfortunate bout of delayed heat illness in the middle of a dinner party, and knee trouble in the final weeks of training. The knee pain (IT band to be exact) lead to intensive physical therapy, icing during his daily commute and hours stretching. But even with those obstacles, last Sunday, Bob not only completed his marathon journey, but he had an amazing running debut!

The weather on race day also presented an enormous hurdle. The winds that day were horrible, 20-30mph, with gusts even stronger. The kind of wind that causes you to hang on tight to the steering wheel so you don't fly off the overpass. During the section of the course that circled White Rock Lake, Bob said he felt like he was standing still. At mile 23, he was really really struggling. He decided to walk for a bit for the first time in his race. After a half mile, he decided it was too painful and exhausting to walk, and running was somehow easier than walking. He managed to will himself to finish, and was only 10 minutes slower than his goal time. Many people that day were slower than their goal time, if they finished at all. The paper reported that winner had the slowest finish time since 2001....which was a race with no elite runners.

His finish time was 3:40:23 (3 hours, 40 minutes, 23 seconds), 8:25 pace...that's like setting your speed on your treadmill to 7.1...and running on it for 3 hours. This is an awesome finish time for anyone, much less a new runner and a first time marathoner.

The rest of his stats:
He was 427 out of 3938 total marathoners, 357th Male Overall.
84th in Age Group
Top 10% overall (top 14% of males).
And the links -
From the GPS watch we wear:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/1545677
(if you mouse over the graph, you can see the pace)

Photos (use bib# 5243):
http://www.sportphoto.com/Event.aspx?EventID=61

There are many famous quotes that tell us that what is important is the journey that you take, not the destination. I'm guessing the folks that said that would have called it quits around mile 20. At the end of his brutal 26.2 mile journey and 6 long months of training, Bob found himself 30lbs thinner, no longer needing cholesterol lowering drugs, and in the best shape of his life. Sure it was an amazing trip, but view from the finish line is pretty sweet too.



Bob Post, 03:40:30 (NET) @ Finish Pace 8:24
(that's the actual text that people who signed up for racing tracking received when he crossed the finish line)


(I ran the half marathon in 2:16. More on me in another post)