Arriving in the center of the nation

Late last night, we arrived in Rapid City, SD to begin my marathon adventure.

After picking up our awesome ride...

...we headed to the hotel to get some rest.  

Fully rested the next morning, we explored the city.  It was a beautiful, sunny day, and the temperatures were in the 70s.

On many of the street corners in Rapid City, they have statues of our past presidents.  I decided to see what it was like to be president of the United States.

I decided I would stick with being a Compliance & Ethics manager.  After stopping for a delicious bison burger and made-from-scratch cream pies at Colonial House, we hit the road for Devil's Tower.

There isn't much going on in western South Dakota.  But soon we were in Wyomong.

We stopped to learn more about how the Indians caught their winter meals/clothing.

After a short educational stop, we were back on the road.  Our destination was Devil's Tower, which is a pretty amazing landform that was created by an old volcano.  It even looks like the lava is pouring over the side.  It is also the nation's first national monument.

As we were leaving the park, we stopped to take pictures of some wildlife.  We saw prairie dogs, turkeys, deer, Longhorns, and buffalo.

Mmmmmmm, dinner!

Closing out our first full day of vacation, we strolled down the streets of Hulett, WY in search of a quick, light meal.  We found one at Ponderosa Cafe, where I had an amazing chef salad.

I'm looking forward to hiking around Devil's Tower tomorrow, and then heading to Baker to meet the rest of the crazy people running multiple marathons in one week.

Check out why I'm doing this at http://anython.com/running-for-sissy-simon

Marathon Week is coming!

Tonight I fly to South Dakota to start my week-of-marathons adventure.  I will be running a marathon in Baker, Montana on Monday (9/14), running one in Bowman, North Dakota on Tuesday (9/15), volunteering at the one in South Dakota on Wednesday (9/16), running one in Sundance, Wyoming on Thursday (9/17), and running one in Chadron, Nebraska on Friday (9/18).  

I am doing this crazy thing in hopes of raising money for my family’s adoption expenses.  Some of you know by now that my husband and I are in the process of adopting a girl from Albania.  We are currently in phase two of the adoption process, which is the international approval to adopt (also called the Dossier).  We don’t have a specific child yet, so we are calling our little girl “Sissy” since she will be our son’s little sister.  

The barrier to adoption can be quite high, which is likely why more families don’t choose this route.  There are so many children out there that need forever homes, but the adoption process itself is quite expensive and time consuming.  We estimate that the process will cost between $35k and $45k and will likely take at least two years before it’s all over.   As such, we are fundraising to help break through this barrier.

If you are interested in finding out more about my story, please visit the fundraising website at:  http://anython.com/running-for-sissy-simon.  Note that this website doesn’t work on the version of Internet Explorer that most people have on their work laptops, but it does work in Google Chrome, Safari, and Foxfire, as well as on mobile devices.

I will be posting updates on a daily basis as I run the races on both the fundraising site, and on my blog (http://runnerchik26-2.blogspot.com).  I hope you can share this wonderful experience with me through pictures, messages, thoughts and prayers!

100-miles on the Books

Yesterday, I completed my second 100-mile training week on the way to run four marathons in five days to raise money for our adoption expenses.  This was my last really long training week before the races, as they are three weeks away now.  I will be tapering the rest of the time with a 20-mile, 70-mile, and 40-mile week left.  Sign up to follow me at:  http://anython.com/running-for-sissy-simon.

We are still in the process of gathering our Dossier paperwork, and have had a few bumps along the way.  Yesterday, when I was paying bills, I noticed that the charge for our marriage certificate had been refunded.  I went onto the website where I ordered it to look up our order, and it said it was cancelled.  I have no idea why it was cancelled, because I certainly didn't cancel it!  So now I have an outstanding email to the company to see why it was cancelled and make sure it is in progress so we can get that piece of paperwork.

I week ago, I received the wrong divorce certificate.   For those who don't know, I was married and divorced in college (we all make stupid mistakes, right?).  As a part of the dossier, I have to have a certified copy of my divorce decree.  They sent me one from a Michael and Elizabeth Adams who were married in New Jersey in 1993 (I was 14 at that time) and had two kids.  That is definitely not me!  So I had to call them up and tell them that they sent me the wrong one.  Now they have to reorder it.  The divorce happened in North Carolina, so once I get the correct one, I have to send it back off to the Secretary of State of North Carolina to get it apostilled, which is going to take another month, probably.

We started the paperwork gathering for the dossier in mid-July.  One month later, we are probably about a third of the way through.  It is slow going, but I'm hoping to have it done by end of September or early October.

Home Study Approved!

This past week we were informed that our home study has been approved!  This means that the first phase of our adoption process is complete.  They said it would take about six months to complete the home study, and it was exactly that.  We started at the beginning of the year, and here, at the end of June, we are finally approved and finished.

We will now move onto phase two:  the dossier.  The dossier phase, we have been told, will take between 60 to 90 days.  They said that it will be somewhat repetitive of the home study phase in that it will be another pile of paperwork.  This is the phase where we will get her the necessary official documents for customs, immigration, and to be approved to adopt from our target country, Albania.  

Each new phase brings a new cost.  The dossier phase is $5,500, which we just paid out of savings so that we can continue through the process.  For those who don't know, I will be running 4 marathons in 5 days in September to help raise some of the money for our adoption expenses.  We estimate that the entire process will cost us about $45,000.  That's a heafty price tag, but it will be worth it when we bring Sissy home.  If you are interested in learning more about the fundraiser, please visit our fundraising website at:  http://anython.com/running-for-sissy-simon.

We thank you for your continued prayer and support as we work to bring Sissy home.

Waiting Family Dinners

The adoption agency we're working with, Bethany Christian Services, hosts "waiting family dinners" each quarter.  This is a time for parents who are in the adoption process to come together, meet each other and learn a little about an adoption topic.   The dinners are pot luck.  We eat dinner and socialize for the first 30 minutes to an hour, then the adoption agency presents a topic, and we break out into groups to discuss.

The first dinner of the year was in February, and we were so early in the process that I didn't really feel like we had been waiting long enough to go.  The second one of the year was held last Thursday night.  Since we are pretty much finished with our home study, I thought we might benefit from going.

There were five couples that attended.  From what they said, we were a smaller group than normal.  All of the other couples were domestic adoptions.  The couple that we sat with at dinner was in about the same position as we are.  They had just gotten their home study approved. 

Another couple was in the process of adopting their second child.  They had a 4-year-old adopted girl, and were waiting for their second.  They had been waiting for two years!  They had gotten matched twice over the past two years, but the birth mother backed out at the last minute both times.

The third couple was just beginning their second adoption.  They also had a 4-year-old, and were just starting the paperwork for their home study for their second.

The last couple had a sixteen-year-old and were in the process of adopting another.

The topic that was presented was "Open Adoptions."  This likely won't apply to us, since most international adoptions are from orphanages and are generally closed.  However, open adoptions are getting more and more popular in the USA.  An open adoption is when the adoptive parents know the birth mother and vice verse.  The birth mother may even want to be part of the child's life to some extent and have some level of contact with the adoptive family.  We went through a case study where we discussed scenarios through four stages of the adopted child's life and how to handle certain issues with open adoptions.

It was a very interesting and informative dinner.  I am very much looking forward to coming to the next one and learning more about other families' adoption experiences.

Our 404-CUT-TREE Experience

The people who owned our house before us were a nice, elderly, empty-nester couple who had time to and enjoyed working in the yard.  They had a lot of trees, bushes, and plants that flowered in different times of the year.

 

 

They actually had time to maintain it.  But as a result, we didn't have much yard left in which to play.    There were many places in the yard that had piles of leaves and sticks (in the back corners) where snakes could hide.   And there were also a lot of prickers.  With Alan growing up, we wanted a place for him to play and enjoy the yard.

In the winter of 2012, when Alan was a little over two years, we decided to clear the yard so he would have a place to play.  We hired 404-CUT-TREE at the recommendation of a neighbor.  We had them come out for an estimate, and the price was right, so we scheduled a time for them to come clear the trees, bushes, and brush.

Alan on the Red-Bud Tree

There were two trees that I wanted to keep:  the big tree in the middle of the yard, and a red-bud tree on the left side of the yard near the fence and gate.  The big tree provided enough shade for the house and the deck in the summer time.  The red-bud tree was a great climbing tree.  Just that spring, we had let Alan sit on it and climb on it.  When I was growing up, there were two trees in our yard that we loved to climb, and I wanted Alan to have the same experience.

I told 404-CUT-TREE not to cut those two trees.  They even came and marked them with an orange mark so the workers would know not to cut them down.  We noted them in the work order and excluded them from the pricing.

Apparently the workers weren't told what the orange marker meant.  Before I could even realize it, the red-bud was gone.  They probably cut it down first because it was somewhat in the way of getting the other trees out of the gate.  But that is no excuse.  We had agreed that the red-bud was supposed to stay, and yet, they cut it down.

If my dad weren't there to go talk to the workers, the big tree in the middle might have been gone too.  They were about to take it down, when my dad realized it and went out to talk to them.

When I called to complain about my perfect climbing tree being taken down without our consent, they apologized.  They said they could either plant a new tree, or take money off our bill.  Rob would have rather I just took the discount, but I was very upset about my climbing tree and the fact that Alan would no longer have that experience.  I chose for them to find us as mature of a red-bud tree as they could and plant it in our yard.  It took them several weeks to find a tree for us.  They finally did, and we had them plant it in the back of the yard.  This was late winter/early spring, when no trees had leaves.  As such, our tree they planted also didn't have any leaves, and I didn't think anything of it.

The backyard before and after.  The sod was just put down in the late winter, so it looks brown, but will be green in the summer.

The tree never had leaves.  The first year, spring of 2013, I figured that it was just a newer tree and maybe it needed a year or so to take root and start growing leaves.  2013 went by and spring of 2014, I again anticipated the leaves and red buds.  Again, no red buds or leaves.  Of course, this is my ignorance with plants.  Apparently, as my mother just told me a few weeks ago, trees should have leaves right away, the first year they are planted.   So, of course in 2015, there are still no leaves or red buds, and I have now realized that they planted a dead tree in our yard to compensate us for the beautiful, thriving red-bud that was perfect for climbing.

The yard in the spring 2015 with sod and grass established

The dead tree

So, now I will go back to 404-CUT-TREE and see if they have any rebuttal.  Their way of making me whole was planting a dead tree.  How will they respond?  We shall see...

The Road to Boston - To God be the Glory

I've written the past three blogs on my review of the Boston Marathon and what we did while in Boston.  I want to take a moment now to share with you my road to Boston.

The Boston Marathon is the most elite of all marathons in the world.  It is the oldest consecutive running marathon.  Starting back in 1897, the year after the first Olympic marathon was run, it has run every year since.  Today, there are only two ways to get into the Boston Marathon:  run for charity and raise a lot of money, or run another marathon in a fast enough time (Boston Qualifying time).  All other marathons will take just about anyone who signs up.  The more popular the race, the more common it is now to have a lottery system, which may mean you aren't guaranteed entry if you sign up.  But Boston is the only one where you have to run a fast enough time at another race to get in.

For a woman who is under the age of 35, the time to beat was 3:35.  I had to run a marathon faster than 3 hours and 35 minutes to get into Boston.  Every five years, you get to add 5 minutes to the qualifying time.  So, when I turned 35, my new qualifying time to beat was 3:40.  This takes into account that most people run slower as they age.

On top of meeting the qualifying time, you also have to be faster than the other people who have done that and applied for the marathon.  The Boston Marathon takes only 30,000 people.  For the past two years, more than that amount have met the qualifying time and have applied to get in.  Last year, the cut off was 1:02 faster than qualifying time.  That means that if your qualifying time was 3:40, you had to have run a 3:38:98 or faster to be guaranteed entry. 

This is not easy to do when your average marathon time is around 4 hours.  My fastest marathon time was 3:48 prior to my Boston Qualifying (BQ) race in Kent, WA in June of 2014.  That meant that I had to better my time by about 10 minutes - not impossible, but very difficult.  It took me 22 marathons to finally qualify.

For about 80% of the 21 marathons prior to my Boston Qualifying race, I was trying to get my BQ.  Some of the races, I was just getting my feet wet.  Some of them, I was running with others to help them achieve their goals.  Some of them, I was trying to get back into running after having a baby.  But for most of them, I was trying to qualify for Boston.  Once you start running marathons, it becomes a bit of an obsession to qualify for Boston.

For years leading up to my BQ race, I would try to better my time.  I added speed work into my training.  I started running with people who are faster and better runners than I am.  I trained harder, faster, better.  I thought about getting a running coach to help me get to that Boston qualifying time.  The night before some of my races, I would dream that I was crossing the finish line in my BQ time.  I would wake up confident that I should go for it and try to get that BQ.  And it never happened.

With a marathon, you can train well, and on marathon day, the littlest thing can make it all fall apart.  At New Orleans, on a flat and fast course, I was so close, and then my GI tract kicked in and I had to hit the porta potty.  During my Delaware race, I thought for sure I would get it.  I was at mile 18, and on pace to easily get that BQ time.  Then I broke my foot, and that time slowly slipped away.  It seemed as if it would never happen.  I am just not a fast runner.

 The Lord knew the desire of my heart, and he gave me the drive to not give up.  He didn't give it to me right away.  It was 22 marathons before I finally got it.  For the first 21, his answer was Yes, but Not Yet.

In May of 2014, I was living a life of sin.  There was this little sin that I had been holding on to.   I didn't want to let it go.  I knew I wasn't right to hold on to it, yet I had been.  Early in May of 2014, I finally let it go and surrendered it to the Lord.  I didn't really correlate finally getting my BQ with this moment of surrender until recently, but the timing won't let me deny it.

That month my training had been going well.  I had been running more frequently and consistently with the guys at work, who were better and faster than I was.  I had to run hard to keep up with them on those days.  At least once, sometimes twice, a week I would run with them.  Those runs became marathon-pace runs in my training plan.

The Thursday before my BQ race, I ran a 5k at work, and won it.  I was first female to cross the finish line.  That was the last run before the race on Saturday.

The Green River Marathon is a free race.  The race director runs marathons, and was astonished at how much the cost of marathons had increased over the years.  He decided to put on his own race for free.   You could pay cost for the shirt, and water stops were set up along the way, but you didn't get a medal for finishing.  The course was a Boston qualifying course, though, so I thought I'd check it out.

I flew to Seattle the evening of Thursday, after work.  I stayed with a friend of mine.  He rode his bike to work on Friday, so I could have the car.  I drove to where the race organizer was meeting for lunch, a nice Italian restaurant, to pick up my shirt.  After I got back, I went for a walk around the neighborhood to the lake.  I had my traditional IHOP dinner the night before the race.

The morning of the race, the weather was perfect.  One thing that can make or break your race is the weather, and that is something that you absolutely can't control.  The weather was cool with very low humidity.  It was perfect for running.  Only God could make such a perfect day.

Many of the races that I had run before were "lost" due to bathroom breaks.  I would be on track to BQ, and then my GI tract would kick in, and porta potties were all I could think about.  The Green River Marathon was mostly along a bike trail.  Seattle has a lot of bike trails and parks, and I figured that there would be park-like bathrooms along the way.  I was wrong.  The option to stop wasn't available.  If it had been, I definitely would have stopped around mile 24, and then my time would have suffered.  As it was, I had to gut it out, hoping I could make it to the end.  If I had stopped, the break would have cost me possibly 5 minutes.  Those 5 minutes would have also cost me my BQ time.  Again, God knows what I needed, and a bathroom was not it.

The course is another thing that can make or break a race.  The Green River Marathon course was the perfect mix of flats and hills to keep my muscles from getting over taxed.

The last thing I can attribute my BQ to was electronics and mile markers.  The Green River Marathon actually doesn't have any mile markers.  Most of the race, I had no idea what mile I was on.  For the first two miles, I took it easy and stayed alongside other runners, talking to them as I warmed up.  After about two miles (I can't be exact because there were no mile markers), I took off.  Every mile after that, I ran them as if they were a real race.  I essentially sprinted the next 22 miles.  At mile 24, when I needed to use the bathroom, my pace slowed down slightly, but not enough to keep me from hitting the BQ.  During those fast miles, all I thought about was that "today is race day.  Race it!" and the fact that I wasn't going to be running another race for four months, so I better make the best of it.

All those factors came together to make it happen.  God gave me the perfect day and the perfect course.  I am not a fast runner, and I could not have done it on my own.  If it weren't for Him, I never would have run the race I did.  To God be all the glory.

I doubt I'll ever run another BQ race, but if God is gracious enough to let me do so, I'll be happy to take to the streets of Boston once again.