the race is only one week away and i'm starting to get excited.  i'm officially registered and listed on their website: www.bolderboulder.com with bib #H233.  i guess the deal is i'm in the H wave...starting at 7:50am on Memorial Day Monday.  i guess given that there are ~47,000 runners...it makes sense to break the group into waves. 

 

i'm mostly intrigued by two things...

1) they have tag timing technology that you wear on your shoe.  apparently it tracks your time at each mile and overall.  i guess i'll be getting a print out at the end of the race which will include all of the details.  they'll also post the results on their website.  if you search by my bib# (H233) and the year 2007, my name should appear once i've completed the race.

2) apparently there will be live bands playing at practically every 1/10 of a mile of the race.  the tunes should definitely be helpful with occupying my mind.  i have a feeling since Boulder is a pretty funky place, the tunes will be rather cool...hopefully they know to play only really fast music.  :)

 

i think the tag timing and the tunes will help motivate me and bring out that good ol competitive spirit (as if racing against 46,999 other people wasn't enough for me).  i only worry about the altitude issue.  i just hope i don't become 'that girl' on the side of the road barf'n...somethan to aspire toward.  so, assuming the altitude doesn't kick my ass, i hope to do the 10k/6.2mile race in about 1 hour...10 minute miles...we shall see.  wish me luck...

 

potty training is clearly a good time.  so, out of all the places that Aiden could run to instead of the potty to pee...where do you think would be the worst in a house?  did the floor heat/AC vents come to mind?  for some random reason...the boy is ridiculously drawn to the vents for pee'n purposes.  for example, just last night he got off the potty after pee'n and darted off naked into our bedroom.  i had no worries bc clearly he just went to the bathroom.  i go find him within like 30 seconds - only to witness him point'n the goods down into the vent and pee'n again.  nice!  so, i have to dive at him to stop as much as possible from going down the vent...then remove the vents and try to wash it all off.  awesome.

 

so, the next time you come to our house in the winter when the heat is on...and you notice that our place randomly smells a little like urine...you'll know why.  that's my boy.

 

so, about 20 years ago...my rents decided to get some horses in our barn.  these were to replace the 3 stalls that were randomly filled with bunnies, pheasants and chickens.  why those three?  i have no idea.  i do remember that we killed and ate the chickens (actually we had to watch Amish people kill them on a tree stump w/ an ax and then witness their lower torsos run around the yard for 10 mins w/ blood squirting everywhere - proving that the saying 'run around like chickens with their heads cut off' is a valid saying)....sorry, random tangent that is only one small reason why i need therapy.  moving on...we released the pheasants into the woods and i remember our dog constantly jumping over the stall to try to eat the bunnies.  maybe he ate them all bc i don't remember what we did with them?  ANYWAY, horses soon filled those stalls.

 

we started riding, jumping and showing them.  i enjoyed it, but not anywhere as much as my parents did.  mostly bc i hated doing chores...i hated shoveling poo (actually the pee was harder to clean up than the poo) and i hated banging frozen water buckets outside against the brick wall of the barn. 

 

lots of tangents here - sorry.  the point of the story...my rents started really getting into breeding the horses...which we also had to witness and i think led to my first birds and bees lesson.  i also remember my dad having random temperature charts that monitored our horse's ovulation and having frozen semen containers shipped to our house from KY.  little did i know that one day...my rents would prove their smarts and actually live out their dream...

 

last fall, the equivalent of the triple crown in Thoroughbred racing, my rent's horse won the first two big Arabian races.  then their horse broke his leg in a practice session, so didn't make it to race #3.  their horse stood next to Barbaro - both casted - both try'n to heal - both just coming from their highest high to their lowest low.  and since Barbaro didn't make it, it was looking rather gloomy for my rents.  BUT, the good news is that "Chipper" made it through his surgeries and is now back at my rent's farm recovering.

 

then the next big moment happened.  my rents went to Scottsdale, AZ for the annual Arabian horse awards (Darley Awards).  not only did they win the older horse category, but they also won the horse of the year!  i think this definitely surpassed their wildest dreams. 

 

the funny part to me...they're not stopping.  they're still conditioning Chipper to potentially race again next fall.  they're still raising, training and breeding for future horse races.  and to think that i thought they'd made it and would be content.  i'm somewhat moved by it all.  they've followed their dream, blew away competition and millionaires that have been doing this for generations...how can i not be impressed?  my rents have full time jobs and do this horse-stuff as a side hobby.  it makes me wonder what my calling and/or passion is?  people always say "do something you love and it won't feel like work"...yah, well, i just wish i knew what that something is supposed to be for me.  maybe i'll have that big 'ah-ha moment' when i'm much wiser...like 40.  :)

 

oh, and one more thing, the hometown newspaper just did a write up on the whole story.  and, here's another write-up from the Arabian Jockey Club.  bid deal for back country lil farm folk.

 

and in closing...here are a few photos of the horse win'n both races and my rents winning the horse of the year (with the jockey and trainers)...congrats mah and dad...you definitely deserve it!  (p.s. they picked the jockey's colors based on Aiden's curious george jumper - photo below - it's all about the back stories)