House Assessments

I need to talk for a bit about house assessments in Allegheny County.  There is a huge uproar right now because all the houses in Allegheny County are being reassessed.  Personally, I think it's about time.  I know my opinion is not going to be popular but I hope if you're reading this and disagree that you can at least hear me out and respond in comments if you have information I don't.

Before I say anything that someone might object to, I want to say that from my understanding the new assessments are just realigning everyone.  It doesn't automatically mean your taxes will go up.  In fact, in some cases, taxes will go down even though your assessment value on your house went up.  (Actually, from what I hear as well, pretty much every single house has a higher assessment now.)  So people are reacting before we have seen how it will affect the actual taxes paid.

Previously, reassessments had been done to align to the year 2002.  To me, that means that assessments should have been the fair market value in 2002.  However, looking at the numbers they had previously, I think all of those assessments were low compared to the fair market value.  I'm going to use my numbers just because it's public record.  In 2002, the house I was going to buy was assessed at around $82,000.  Fair market value should mean what the house would sell for at that time, but the going rates were higher than that.  Regardless, that doesn't matter as long as all the houses are assessed equally.  At the time they were.  My neighbors on either side were also in the lower $80,000 as well as other houses in the same plan that were equivalent.

In 2005 I bought my house for $117,900.  The assessment value on my house was immediately changed to $117,900 based on the fair market value at the time, which they considered should be based on what I was willing to pay for the house.  I would have been fine with that If the other houses in the area had also had their assessments raised to the 2005 "fair market value."  But because they hadn't bought their houses, they were left at the 2002 values (which weren't equivalent to fair market value).  So here I am, with a bill based on a little over $35,000 more than the equivalent houses in my housing plan.  I tried to fight it in court and lost.  I tried using the argument spot assessment and they told me this wasn't spot assessment, even though I pulled the definition from the PA constitution and it fit my case.

What's funny is that this has now been called spot assessment by the state.  See a news article here from 2009.  It talks exactly about my situation.

A few years later I was able to go to court again and get my assessment value reduced to $100,000.  I only could do that because I argued that housing prices were falling and my house wouldn't sell for what I had bought it for.  And I finally got it down.  But it was (and is) still more than $15,000 higher than the other equivalent houses in the neighborhood.

I am actually happy about the reassessments.  Yes, my assessment value has gone up from $100,000 to $109,000 with the new standard.  But as long as that is equivalent to the other houses in the neighborhood, I am not going to complain.  By the way, just looking at the housing market, I do think that $109,000 is around what my house would sell for right now and is therefore the current fair market value.

Yes, my taxes are likely to go down because I will be compared to equivalent houses and I have been paying more than they have.  But I've been paying more than my neighbors for 6 years now, just because I bought a house more recently than they have.  Is that really fair?  It's certainly not going to encourage people to buy in Allegheny County if things don't change.  That's what they are trying to do here- to align everything so it is more fair.

If they reassessed your house to a value that is higher than equivalent houses around you, then I agree, it should be contested and I hope you win in court.  But if it's equal, I'd say wait and see how the taxes come out.  It might not be as dire as everyone is thinking right now.

I need to say that there's an assumption I made that taxes are not going to be raised, they are going to be redistributed evenly.  If taxes are raised, however, the issue isn't with the assessment value of houses in the county but with the fact that taxes were raised (and maybe they tried to hide it in the reassessment effort).

I reserve the right to delete any comments that personally attack me.  Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and has the right to disagree.  But I will not leave something up here that makes things personal.

Week 4 Half Marathon Training

Week 4


Plan miles: 13 miles running plus some cross/strength training.
Actual miles: 19.94 miles in 3:20:49 with no strength training and two days of cross training (40 minutes on a stationary bike, 11.6 miles and walking 1.5 miles in 22:30- not counted in total for miles though)

My longest run was supposed to be 6 miles per my plan and my longest run was 7.5 miles.  That was a decent group run with 5 other friends.  The first 5 miles all 6 of us ran somewhat together in 4:1 intervals (4 minutes running, 1 minute walking).  Then we stopped for water because that was one loop of the park.  We all headed out again.  2 turned back after a little over .5 miles to get another mile.  1 wanted to do the whole loop 4:1 again.  The other 3 of us did 3:1 intervals and the goal was 3 miles.  I was getting tired though so I turned in a bit early and made it 2.5 miles instead of 3 while they continued on.  It was probably better for them anyways; they sped up once I broke off.


I figure doing run/walk intervals I can stretch it longer, so it's ok that I went more than the plan called for.  And I'm starting to learn the signs from my body that it's been enough.  That's part of the reason I turned around and cut out .5 miles.  I am starting to figure that my knee is where I'm going to feel it the most.  And my knee was starting to hurt.


When I first started running the loop around the lake with Colleen, my knee would hurt quite a bit by the end.  I had completely forgotten that until today and realized- I didn't even notice that my knee has stopped hurting when we run the distance of the loop.  (We try to get out about once a week and I haven't felt it in a while now.)  That's definitely proof I have made progress!


Clothing wise (on the long run), I thought it was going to be pretty cold so I bundled up in layers.  But I ended up starting in my purple shirt with thumb holes, a short sleeve shirt and my arm warmers underneath, my running tights with shorts over, wool socks, a hat, and gloves.  And by the end of the first loop I had peeled off even some of those layers.  No more hat, gloves, or purple shirt.  I was running in just a t-shirt and the arm warmers.


Mileage on shoes
Teal: 323.5 miles
Purple: 15.7 miles


Next week is going to be lower as far as total miles.  I already know I won't be able to work out at all on Monday or Tuesday.  But I probably could use the rest after the run today.  

Relaxing weekend

I am going to post more often than I used to but generally only if I have something to talk about.  I don't really want to blog about my daily life, because I do want to keep some things off the public internet.  But I don't mind talking after the fact about some things we've done, and I admit I like to use this blog for running.  It might be nice someday to look back and remember how I felt trying to train for my first half marathon, etc.

Not much happened last week or this past weekend.  Which was nice for a change!  I got a lot of exercise in (yay for my training plan) and we were able to just chill out, catch up on our DVR recordings, and finally get to things like cleaning the house and going grocery shopping.  Isn't it crazy that sometimes we have a hard time FINDING the time to go grocery shopping??

This is the first weekend in a long time that we had absolutely nothing planned.  We ended up kind of last minute hanging out with friends both Friday night and Saturday night.  And in both cases, it was people we hadn't seen in awhile.

And other than that, I really have nothing else to say.  I think I'm going to head back upstairs and lounge and watch tv.  Or maybe I'll read a book.  Ahhh this is the life! ;)

Week 3 Half Marathon Training

Week 3


Plan miles: 12 miles running plus some cross/strength training.
Actual miles: 12.21 miles this week  in 2:07:52 with one day of strength training (free weights at home) and one day of cross training (30 minutes on a stationary bike, 8.6 miles)

The way I was calculating the plan miles previously was different than I did this week.  Some of the plan days it says "x miles or cross training".  Week 1 and 2 since I didn't do cross training, so I counted the miles for those days.  Since I did the cross training this week, I didn't count the miles for the cross training day.  (It would have added 2 more miles to make it 14.)


Also, I was on my way to actually following the plan (and not having to make up the miles with a long run) but the weather and work got in the way.  Thursday night I couldn't get home until late and hit a guardrail...  Friday I had hoped to have the day off but had to work both Friday and some on Saturday as well.  It looks like I can't really count anymore on Fridays off.


I had another 6 mile run- broken up into 5 miles and 1 more mile back to back.  In the middle of the extra mile we stopped and took some pictures.  I forgot how crappy my clothing "ensemble" looks running, trying to wear the right clothes for the weather.  Here's a picture though.  The sunglasses were free from the Hot Chocolate 5K/15K expo.  And I much prefer not having a hat on for pictures.  But I wasn't thinking about how I looked; it was basically at the end of our run.  

I also have a pretty bad blister on one of my toes.  This is not a good sign this early in training, is it?

Teal: 310.6 miles
Purple: 8.6 miles


Here are some more pictures of both of us.  I love that the camera captures both feet being off the ground.

For some reason to me it looks like I'm walking in this picture.
But no, if you look closely, both feet are off the ground at the same time...

I think Colleen likes close-ups better but I really like this entire shot- with the sun at the top
and the scenery (snow and bare trees, yes, that's still scenery) in the background.

Dave and Buster's

Friday night, even though there was forecast for freezing rain, we went to Dave and Buster's.  I know, I know, especially after hitting a guard rail the night before trying to get home, maybe that wasn't the best idea.  But we didn't even know about the forecast early in the day, Dave's car was at the auto shop for inspection, and he didn't have a car at work so I was going to pick him up anyways.  And the roads were fine so we went to Dave and Buster's "on the way home."  And kept an eye on the weather- watching our phones and Dave walked outside a few times to see how it was.

Dave and Buster's was a work thing.  NA-YGN (stands for... something like North America Y... G... Nuclear, something like that) had a late Christmas party there.  Although I belong to NA-YGN I have never really participated in activities.  Westinghouse is pretty big and I don't know a lot of the people.  The meetings are in another building across Cranberry and I don't want to drive there and back just for a meeting.  But Colleen is in it and very active so I decided to start participating more.  They had a buffet dinner, which was pretty good, and it came with power cards for games.  NA-YGN also set up two tournaments; one basketball and another with the horse racing where you throw a ball up (amusement park type game) to move the horse 1, 2, or 3 spaces at a time.  Dave and I participated in the basketball one.  He beat me in the first round and almost won! He got to the championship round but the person he played beat him with a pretty high score.

We stuck around for a few hours, used our power cards, and then headed home.  It was just starting to snow but we were fine driving.  So I'm glad we went.

This was our souvenir.  Typical Drylie souvenir. ;)

Tigger loves it, too

Driving in the snow

Our winter has been unseasonably warm and nice, and I haven't been complaining.  The last few days we've started getting the winter weather.  I do love how the snow looks, especially when it's freshly fallen.  But I really miss the days when we got off school and didn't have to drive.  If I didn't have to drive in it, I'd be perfectly content to watch it fall.

Thursday we were supposed to get some snow (a few inches, not a lot) and it started a little bit before I left work.  I ended up leaving Cranberry around 4:30.  I had a bad accident on the turnpike about 2 years ago that totaled my RAV4 so I'm hesitant about that road (mostly the construction area- 2 years ago I slid on black ice and hit both concrete barriers on both sides which took out my tires and then my car slid forward with the momentum, ruining underneath and the front even though I never hit the front at all).  I actually don't mind driving in snow if there aren't a lot of other cars around and I can take it somewhat slow.

So I decided to take back roads, which would normally take me about 45-50 minutes from Cranberry to home.  There were other cars on the road but it wasn't bad and we all drove slightly under the speed limit.  There were hills, curves, stop signs, stop lights, etc., and I did slide around a bit but I was pretty comfortable.  It took me an hour and 20 minutes to get within a mile from home and that's when the problems happened.

Our housing plan is kind of on the top of a pretty big hill so no matter what direction you come from, there is some type of hill you have to drive up.  What's worse, no plows or salt trucks had gotten to any of the roads.  (They didn't really on the other roads either but with less traffic around I was able to keep momentum on the hills, etc.)

I was headed on the main road to get to my house and at the very bottom of the hill, there was a car stopped with flashers on and a lineup behind them.  One of the things about driving a hill in snow- if you slow down or take it too slowly you won't have the momentum to carry you up the hill and once you lose that you lose traction and- well, you can't get up the hill all the way.  I'm pretty sure this ended up being a sports car (because Dave drove coming from the other direction later) trying to get up the hill and it was probably not ever going to happen for a car with super sporty wheels/tires.

I ended up deciding to turn around and try another back road.  This one is worse- very, very curvy and steep.  But I wasn't really having any issues so I decided to try it.  Dave had dropped his car off for inspection and was waiting for me to get him, and I didn't want to get stuck away from home.

I made it almost all the way up (and I'm pretty sure I would have) but a car coming down around one of the bends was sliding down in the middle of the road.  So I pulled over to the side and slowed down.  When I did that, though, I lost all traction and couldn't get started again.  I ended up doing a 3 point turn to go back down the hill and either try again or think of another way to go...  All was fine until I was facing down the hill and took my foot off the brake.  At that point, the car just slid.  It was very slow but still shook me up.  I hit the brakes, the ABS kicked in, which adds to the panic (as well as the stupid "YOU'RE SKIDDING" light on my car.  Thank you.  Thank you very much.  I already know I'm skidding, and the light doesn't help.)  Anyway, there were two cars at that point coming up the hill, a guard rail on the left side of the road, and a hill on the right side of the road.  My car was pretty much uncontrollable so it slid into the guard rail (on the driver side).  I was watching the cars coming up and thinking there is no way I'm not going to hit them.  But my car kind of slowly bounced from the guard rail, and hit the hill on the other side of the road.  That's what finally stopped the car.

At that point I was able to put the car into low gear, go to the bottom of the hill, find a parking lot, and just stop and sit. My heart was racing.  I got out of the car and actually the damage wasn't bad.  I was ok.  So I'm counting my blessings.  I also can't believe I didn't hit the car coming up.  (They also got stuck because they had to stop and lost their momentum.)

Here are some pictures of the damage.  Anybody know what to do to sand and paint it?  The metal is exposed on the car behind the rear wheel and I should get that taken care of.

Very minor damage by the front wheel

Somewhat worse damage by the back wheel.

Dave ended up driving to get me (took awhile for him to even get to me and he was only a few miles away at the car shop- thank goodness he still had his key).  I went to a local bar where we know the bartenders and some of the people and drank a coke watching the Pens game until we thought the salt trucks and plows had had enough time to clear things up.  And sure enough, by that point, we drove both cars up and were so happy to be home.

But this is why as an adult I'm not really that crazy about snow anymore.  And lesson learned- if I ever get stuck like that again, instead of trying the bad curvy hill I'm going to wait it out somewhere even if I just want to get home.

Why I Run

One of my friends, Colleen, asked me to do a guest post for her blog, talking about why I run.  She’s had several other runners do that for her blog and it sounded like an interesting idea.  I decided since I’m writing it for her blog (the guest post is here) I’d also put it on my blog as well.  If you’re interested in why other people run, you can look at the other guest posts in her blog as well.

with Colleen and Callie after the Harmony Silvester 5K on New Year's Eve

I have never been an athlete or into sports at all.  There are some good genes in my family but I didn’t get any of them.  (My sister did, however, and sports have always come naturally to her.  It makes me jealous sometimes.)

I actually joined the track team when I was about 5 years old.  I did it because my best friend at the time was on the team.  I had no idea what track or running really meant.  And as I was joining, she quit.  I didn’t want to be on the team anymore but my parents said you don’t quit things so I had to stick it out for the rest of the year.  I don’t remember much about that but I did get a ribbon for placing in a relay race.  And I remember watching the mile run and thinking that was so far!

I never was into running even after that.  I remember dreading the mile run each year in gym class, and I played tennis in high school and also hated any running associated with that.  We used to try to cheat and run less if our coach wasn’t watching.  My first year of tennis I was so sore for a little while as my body got used to the exercise, especially the running.  My hamstrings and calves were so tight!  But that also helped me learn sometimes you push through the soreness and it actually can feel better faster.

Before I go on, I should say that I don’t really consider myself a “real” runner.  I like to go out there and do it but I’m not even close to being competitive and I haven’t been at this for a full year yet.

I started out running as a way to get some exercise in.  I’ve tried other things before.  I did Body Pump (Les Mills) and loved that but it requires a gym membership and there aren’t any gyms close to me or convenient with my busy schedule to consistently attend the classes and make it worth spending the $.  I have EA Active on Wii but don’t really have enough room in our living room right now to spread out and do it.  I also have an exercise bike at home but I have to drag it out each time I use it.  With running, I just throw on some workout clothes and go.  No pulling out heavy equipment (the treadmill is already there) and if I want to run around the neighborhood I just walk out the door.

Crossing the finish line of my first 5K in April 2011 and approaching the finish line at a 5K a few months later.

I started running late February of 2011.  I started solely on my brand new treadmill (birthday present from my husband) and did the Couch to 5K program.  I was about 8 weeks (out of 10) into the program when I ran my first 5k race.  It was downtown Pittsburgh, in April, and the weather wasn’t that great.  This was also my first time running outside, which might have been stupid.  It was cloudy and rainy, and it was cool enough that the rain was coming down pretty cold.  My husband drove me to the race and honestly if he hadn’t gone with me I would have chickened out.  I was so nervous, too!  I ended up walking twice towards the end but finishing with a time of 31:50 and from that point on I’ve been hooked.  I remember saying over and over to my husband- I just ran 3 miles!  I couldn’t believe it.  I was the person who couldn’t even manage a mile in gym class.

I’ve kept running since then and found more reasons that I do like to run.  I originally did it just to get some exercise in but it has been a lot more enjoyable than I ever realized it would be.  These are some of the reasons why:

• It can be a great stress reliever.  There are a number of times already that I’ve been feeling either really stressed out or emotional and I put on my running shoes and just go.  It helps me so much!  I pound away my frustration or emotion, and those runs are sometimes faster/longer because my mind is on something else and not the run.
• It's a nice way to get outside.  There have been some days where I’ve been running and just enjoyed the scenery and being out in the sunshine.  Even sometimes the “bad” weather is nice.  For example, if it’s a hot day, some rain is a relief because it will cool you down.
• The races are so fun.  It’s such a good feeling at the end of a race to cross that finish line and continue to try to improve your time.  Actually, I should clarify and say that in general training runs themselves just give me a satisfaction when I’m done.
• I am a loner and running provides some time by myself when I don’t feel obligated to talk but can think through things as much as I want. 
• At the same time, though, I’ve really connected by running with some friends.  It’s a chance to really talk, although I admit most of the time I listen.  I’m not really a big talker while running.  But it’s brought me closer to a few people.  I never expected that when I started running.  Some of my best runs are with a friend, talking the time/miles away.
• Running is an individual sport.  I can be competitive with myself.  I prefer that over team sports.  I always feel bad if I’m bringing a whole team down, and for some reason I am more competitive on my own/against myself.  There is always a new goal to drive for. 
• I'm an engineer, so yes, I’m a nerd.  And I love crunching numbers.  How many miles did I run this week?  How did it compare to a month ago, six months ago?  What was my pace for this specific run?  What was my fastest .25 mile and my slowest .25 mile?  (I got a Garmin watch for Christmas and that helps so much with tracking all of this!)  Tracking some of this also motivates me and gives me a goal to continuously improve.

I’m sure my list will grow as I keep up the running.  Some of my friends think I’m a little crazy and don’t understand why I run or how I could enjoy it.  I’m not sure if this will help explain it, but I’m surprised myself.  I’m currently training for my first half marathon, and I never would have believed I’d be at this point right now.

About to cross the finish line at the Resolution Run.

Week 2 Half Marathon Training

Week 2

Plan miles: 12 miles running plus some cross/strength training.
Actual miles: 12.36 miles this week  in 2:10:54 and no cross/strength training

Plan long run: 4 miles
Actual long run: 6 miles in 1:02:03 (run/walk intervals)

So the good news is that I got a really good long run in.  But the bad news is that I took 3 rest days in a row, which I really want to avoid.  But I was sore from the 6 mile run the day after, and then the following 2 days we had plans and I couldn't fit a run in between work and plans outside of work.


I still want to be careful about ramping up too quickly.  I want to avoid injuries like a stress fracture.  I'm really glad I got the 6 miles in but it might be more than I should be doing if I'm following the plan.  I feel a little better about it, though, because we did run/walk intervals instead of just a straight run.  I may end up doing run/walk intervals for the half marathon itself but I'd like to also build up straight running as much as possible.  So my goal is to be doing an actual 6 mile run at some point.  I think if I slow down my pace I could probably do it (and having company on the run definitely helps as well).


I also got a new pair of shoes so I'm going to track miles on both pairs of shoes and use this blog to do it.  


Teal: 304.5 miles
Purple: 2.5 miles


I'm going to start with the new shoes just on the treadmill.  That will break them in and I can use my old shoes in the snowy, muddy, get your shoes dirty weather.

Busy week/weekend!

I didn't post much this week, partly because I was busy and partly because I still felt sick.  I can't kick this stupid cold.  At least my throat isn't hurting, though, and it's definitely not as bad as it was.  But I'm still waking up feeling pretty groggy in the mornings and having a hard time getting out of bed and moving.  I'm going to try to go to sleep early tonight.  Unlike a lot of people, I do have to work tomorrow.  It's not one of our holidays.

I don't have any pictures from this past week.  Maybe I should make that another resolution, to try to take more pictures.  I'd like to include something like that in blog posts; I think it makes them more interesting.

Some of the things we have done this past week:

I ran a few times (and will talk more about that in my weekly half marathon training update, in a separate post). We finally hung out with some friends of ours who had a baby in August- we hadn't seen them really since before their baby was born.  I got to hold her and even feed her a bottle, she is so adorable!

We also went to my sister-in-law's house.  She and I cook together sometimes.  She's a really good cook and baker- she makes some delicious cake (and baked our groom's cake for our wedding - here's a picture of that) and I especially love her homemade frosting.  Anyway, we made stuffed meatloaf, mashed potatoes, corn, and pineapple upside down cake for dessert.  There is some leftover cake on the counter that's calling my name right now.

The groom's cake that my sister-in-law made is on the right.  It was delicious.  Although techncially it wasn't a groom's cake (as Dave pointed out later) because it was along the theme of a wedding.  Traditionally the groom's cake is something the groom would want that's special.  I'm not sure what Dave would have picked if he'd had the choice...

I went running with a friend I'm getting to know better.  She is doing Couch to 5K so we followed her week on the jail trail and then went to Panera and got to talking.  Before I knew it, a few hours had passed in Panera.  I love being able to talk to some people like that, though!  And I haven't had a good talk like that in a long time.

And today we went to Cranberry for church because Dave played drums there (he plays about once a month), and went to the Pittsburgh Symphony.  We went primarily for Evelyn Glennie- the only person to make a solo percussion career.  She's a bit strange and the music she played was very contemporary.  The piece she played was Spirit Voices by Steven Stucky.  It was a very unique piece. ;)  She is so amazing though and wow can she play mallets really well.  If I ever hear that she's playing a keyboard percussion concert or something, I'm there!  The PSO also played Suite from Mother Goose by Ravel (also pretty good) and the 2nd half was Symphonic Dances by Rachmaninoff.  I'm more familiar with his piano concertos but I really thought that the Symphonic Dances was very good.  There were some points where all the strings were playing that were just so touching.  I also love it when all of the brass is playing, and there were some parts of the piece with that as well.

Hopefully this week I'll finally get over my cold.  We have another busy one planned, as usual.  Tuesday will be two weeks from when I started feeling sick (started in my throat) and colds are supposed to last two weeks, so I'm crossing my fingers!

Half Marathon Training!

So earlier today I signed up for the Pittsburgh Half Marathon, which is on May 6th.  I will post other things on the blog as well but I'm going to use it for some accountability and start tracking my training.  It's a big goal and I'd really like to do it, even though it's pretty scary to think about running 13.1 miles all at once!

So here goes.  I have more weeks before the half marathon than are in the plan so Colleen helped me double up on some weeks.  It's a plan that will get me to FINISH.  That's my goal.  Just to do it.  Depending on how that goes, we'll see if I run one again and make an actual time goal.

Week 1 

Plan miles: 11 miles running plus some cross/strength training.
Actual miles: 16.116 miles this week  in 2:47:27 and no cross/strength training

Plan long run: 4 miles
Actual long run: 4.27 miles in 47:55 (with a break because I ran the first 3.04 miles with 2 friends and then ran the rest myself)

I have a feeling that I'm going to be bad at the cross/strength training.  My long run was supposed to be 4 miles, and my long run was 4.27 miles.  I actually had two 4+ mile workouts this week, though, and one was on the treadmill.

It's probably going to be hard to keep up the mileage with our busy schedule.  That's part of the reason I'm going to report it here.

Resolution Run recap

This morning I ran another 5K.  Two in two weeks - in the winter.  If you had told me one year ago where I'd be today I would have laughed and said yeah right.  (Especially the part about in the winter.  I'm always cold.)

I was feeling somewhat sick and seriously considered just staying in bed.  But I ended up deciding to go, especially because my friend Colleen was there too.  (Honestly, if she hadn't been I would have skipped.)

We met in a different parking lot because Colleen has been to this race before and she said parking can be hard to get.  We met pretty early- the race was at 9:30am but we wanted to make sure we got in the actual lot.  I forgot to account for the lack of traffic on a Saturday morning so I actually got there around 8am.  We were planning to meet at 8:15.  (Registration started at 8.)

The weather ended up being pretty nice and we took my car to the actual lot where the race was.  It was kind of icy/muddy so after the first time from our car to the Rose Barn (where registration was as well as the after race activities) we went the long way around, on the road.  It was nice that everything was inside because it can get pretty cold.  We both brought a bunch of layers and were trying to decide what to wear.  It can be hard to figure out.

Before the race

I ended up wearing what you see.  I decided not to go with any type of hat, so I adjusted my ponytail higher before the race.  I originally had arm warmers underneath the purple shirt but right before the race started I decided to take them off.  I'm glad I did that- I would have been fine in a short sleeved shirt.  (I did have a short sleeved shirt underneath but I didn't want to stop to take off the purple shirt while trying to run, and my bib was on the purple shirt.)

This was another out and back course, in North Park.  It's where Colleen and I run most of the time so it was really familiar.  We started at the Boathouse and there wasn't chip timing at the start.  It took a shortcut by the tennis courts, which went over a bridge and on some gravel.  That was pretty icy.  I ran the entire first half to the turnaround but again I started out too fast.  I don't know if it's because of all the other runners, but my first .25 miles was 2:10 (an 8:40 pace when I normally run more around a 10:00 pace).  So I started trying to pace myself closer to 10:00 miles.

My mile splits:
Mile 1: 9:27
Mile 2: 9:55 (Total time 19:12)
Mile 3: 10:39 (Total time (29:41)

Also, I don't think it was quite 3.1 miles.  This time it was probably my own fault. They had cones out at a few places but I didn't know what they were supposed to mean- what side you were supposed to go on or anything.  So I just ran...  and didn't really pay attention to them.  My garmin ultimately said I went 3.04 miles in 29:52.  The official time from the chip timing system was 29:51.

And I really need to work on the 2nd half of the 5ks.  If I could just keep up what I do the first half, my time would be improved by a lot!  So maybe I need to build up endurance, or do a better job of pacing myself early on so that I can speed up the 2nd half.  Well, and this time, I have to admit, the entire way back I was wiping my nose on my sleeves and just really tired, so I walked quite a few times but mostly for short spurts.  I don't know how much I can really blame on being sick.

Since Colleen was done first she took some pictures of me coming around the bend and across the finish line.  I'm going to post the 4 pictures she took, even though I'm pretty far back in the first one.

I think if you click on it, it might show up bigger, but I'm in the back rounding the corner.

The girl behind me turned out to be in the same age group- so I'm glad I pushed at the end or I would have been one further back.  (I finished 8th in my age group- not sure out of how many.)

I think sometimes when the camera snaps our body can look so funny!  

(I'm thinking in particular about my legs in the above picture.)

About to cross the finish line.  

Colleen got some good pictures for me!  I guess that's the advantage of being slower. ;)  I think it will be awhile before there's any chance I could do the same for her.  She ended up coming in 3rd place in her age group AND crushing her personal record (PR).  (I say crushing because I think she did it by a minute and that is really good, especially for how fast she's running right now.)  I tried to take some pictures of her getting her award but I didn't do a very good job of that.

And here we are together, after the race.  This picture looks a lot like the first one (from before the race)- with the way we're smiling and positioning our bodies.

Run stats for 2011

I like data a lot so I was looking at what I did in 2011.

I started running February 28th, on my treadmill.  I did Couch to 5K (click the link for the plan) and ran my first race on April 16.  I was on week 7 of the Couch to 5K plan at that point and really pleased with my first time (31:50 officially).  Week 7 has you running for 25 minutes at a time, which is hard on the treadmill.

I've been logging my training in an Excel spreadsheet and I'm going to make a better one for this year to track even more data.  But I can tell by month and overall what I ran and walked, mileage wise.  For the year, I walked/ran a total of 279 miles.  Out of that, 86.5 miles were walking and 192.5 miles were running.

This is the monthly break down:

Feb/March	41.11
April	39.45
May	28.95
June	51.98
July	12.87
August	10.26
September	26.9
October	13.11
November	16.28
December	38.13
	279.04

Which is pretty decent considering in mid-July I dropped the cymbal on my foot, got stitches on my toe, and couldn't run for 4-5 weeks until it healed.  (It's still not fully healed- hurts sometimes to touch and still doesn't completely bend.)  Watching the Turtle Trot Race was really hard, too!  I wanted to run it so badly.  And in September, October, and some of November, I was working so many hours at work that I barely had time to fit anything in, much less try to exercise.

Also, some of that is estimated.  When I run/walk intervals outside, I had to estimate based on the amount of time running and walking.

Harmony Silvester 5K recap

My final race for 2011 was on New Year's Eve.  It was the 5th annual race in Harmony, which also has a German New Year celebration.  It was pretty small but at 6pm (midnight in Germany) they had a lit up ball that dropped down to the New Year and then had a pretty decent fireworks display.

This race was fun- not only did family come (Dave, my sister-in-law Beth, and our nephew Milo) but I knew two other racers.  Colleen and I run at North Park together and she was racing, and her friend Callie was also there from Colorado.  They're both faster than me, and Callie won overall for the women.

Colleen and me before the race

The race was out and back, and I was nervous because Colleen and I had done two loops at North Park the day before.  (We did run/walk intervals for the first loop, 4.5 miles, and then did a fast walk including the big hill for 5 miles.)  But that didn't seem to affect me- my muscles were fine.

I used Colleen's Garmin for the race- she and I both got a new one for Christmas but when I got mine the battery was screwed up and I had to return it.  She used her old one because she is still getting used to the new one and I used her new one (which is the same model as my new one).  The data is funny and shows me I need to learn to keep a steady pace.

Pretty soon I'll have these from my own watch!  And I'll figure a better way to cut and paste the picture.  But the blue is my speed and the green is the elevation.  The first spike in blue is when I walked to take my gloves off.  I can't seem to run and do anything like that or I fall all over myself.  The 2nd spike was the turnaround point, where I slowed down to get around the cone.  And then I walked at the start of the next 2 hills.  I'm kicking myself for that but I always do.  I need to work on the mental part- my body can handle it!

Since it was an out and back race, I watched for both Callie and Colleen before the turnaround.  I did see Callie- she and another girl were the first women and I yelled "Go Callie" to cheer her on.  She told me later she did hear me but didn't see me.  I didn't see Colleen but I thought she had on the green Pittsburgh marathon shirt, not the blue one.  That's probably why I missed her.  (And she thought I had my black jacket on over the purple shirt so she missed me, too.)

The hills weren't too bad, although on the way back I was tired and they both made me kind of sigh.  When I got towards the end, Callie and Colleen were there cheering and that really gave me a boost.  They told me the end was right there, and I was surprised because the Garmin watch said it had been something like 2.9 miles...  so it was short!  Sure enough, when I rounded the corner, there was the finish line.  I saw that the time was under 30 minutes and I couldn't believe it since I'd walked a few times.  So I sped up to make sure I beat 30 minutes and I did- my official time was 29:54.

Since Dave was at the end, I got some good pictures of me finishing.

The lady next to me, it was her first 5K and she was walking/running most of it.  So we kept passing each other.  I remember how I felt after my first 5K- I couldn't believe I'd actually done it!  I know for runners 3.1 miles isn't a big deal but I had never really run that far before and the mile in gym class was always a big pain for me.  Anyway, I congratulated her and told her she did a really good job.  And laughed a little at the pictures later, she looked so tired and relieved to be done!

Me, Colleen, and Callie after the race

Callie receiving her first place medal

And my official time.

The course was short (it was 2.95 miles on the Garmin) but according to the Garmin these were the mile splits:

Mile 1: 10:03

Mile 2: 10:24 (total time 20:27)

Mile 2.95: 9:23 (total time 29:50)

Hot Chocolate 5K recap

I ran the Hot Chocolate 5K in DC on December 3, 2011.  My friend Susan was also in it and I actually ran with her friend's bib.  By the time I went to sign up, the 5K was sold out.  And I wasn't ready to do the 15K.

The race was actually in National Harbor and I took a day off work on Friday to drive down (avoid DC rush hour traffic) and pick up race packets.  National Harbor looks really nice and they even have a Peep store!

When we found the expo, we picked up our packets and wandered around.  They had a discount for running clothes there so I bought a pair of gloves- thank goodness I did because I needed them the next day!  We also took picture and I bought a few shirts.  The packet came with a jacket, which turned out to be kind of cheap, I thought.  But it is one more jacket than I had before!  I needed a women's XL with the way the sizing was and they didn't have any more left so I ended up getting a men's small.

Susan and I also wandered around National Harbor a little bit, taking some pictures.

The day of the race, we got up early (neither of us is a morning person but I think it was worse for Susan than me- I kept waking up thinking about the race and not wanting to be late).  We took the shuttle and I forget the exact timing but they said to be there by 5:45 or something like that, for the 5K, and we were there just before that.  The bus driver got lost on the way, which was surprising.  I wasn't sure at first if we were really lost but the coach bus did a U turn at an intersection- that's a dead giveaway!

So we were there pretty early (wish I'd written this soon after the race because I don't remember the exact timing anymore).  I think that our race was supposed to start at 7:30... and then the 15K was supposed to start an hour after that at 8:30.  We needed to be out of the way because the 15K ended with the 5K loop around National Harbor.

This is when the fun started.  So first we were there early...  And then if you look at a map of National Harbor, there is only one way in and out.  There were 15,000 runners registered for the 15K and 7,000 runners registered for the 5K, all trying to get there.  It was crazy.  Traffic was so bad that a lot of people were going to miss the races.

One of the good things- they had a lot of porta potties.  There was never a wait.  So at 7ish we checked our gear (brrr, it was around 32 degrees out) went one more time to the bathroom and lined up in our corral.  We were in corral D, which was the slowest one, but it looked like most people didn't sign up for the corrals.  I did it because I didn't want to get stuck in the middle of a walkers, trying to thread through that.

Because of the traffic mess, the 5K ended up being delayed 45 minutes.  By the time we lined up in the corral it was 7:15, 15 minutes before race time was supposed to start.  The announcer was hard to hear, blamed the traffic on accidents (not sure if there really were any or it was just congested from so many people trying to get there at the same time), and instead of saying it would be at least blah late, kept saying just 5 more minutes to let people arrive.  So we stood there the entire time.  In the freezing cold.  Don't ask me how I managed that, I am one of the coldest people in the world.  Looking back that was crazy but at the time we just did it.

So the race finally started 45 minutes late, at 8:15, and we took off.  It started down the hill and went along the river/harbor.  I heard later that it went the wrong direction around and that things got clogged up there because the path was pretty small for that many runners.  We didn't have much of a problem and it was pretty!  We wrapped around and went up our first hill.  Most of the race everyone was passing me but because of running in hilly Pittsburgh, I started actually passing people on the hills!  Then we did a little circle thing and had a longer hill.  At that point I was getting too warm and I tried to take my jacket off.  I'm learning that I can't do anything else and run, though, so I walked long enough to do that.  The worst part, though, is that I had my phone on an armband on the outside of my jacket and completely forgot about it.  So it fell off.  Thank goodness someone behind me yelled out that I dropped something so I turned around to go get it.  Stupid me!  And I'm so glad I didn't lose my cell phone.

Also, because of the super cold start we were pretty tight (muscle wise) and my knee started hurting.  I had Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis that I grew out of but I know what arthritis feels like and that's what it felt like. I thought maybe it was the weather but it did concern me.  Susan and I had run the first mile together but at the first water stop she wanted water and I didn't, so I kept going.  (Can't run and drink at the same time, either, and I was in a groove and didn't want to stop or walk.)

When my knee really started hurting, I had no idea how far we are but figured it was close to the end so I started to walk.  Susan had on a bright yellowish/greenish shirt with a matching hat so I looked behind to see how far she was.  I could see her, so I walked waiting for her to catch up.  And we ran the rest of the way together. 

It ended in a pretty decent grade hill, and it seriously felt like we were crawling up that.  I think I could have walked the same speed we were running if I hadn't been so tired.

We crossed the finish line and I didn't find out my official time until later - 32:38.  I wasn't completely happy with that time but it was fun, I'm glad I got to run with Susan, and it is my biggest race by far, and my first out of town race.

And afterwards we got chocolate fondue (wish there had been more stuff to dip it with) and hot chocolate.  YUM.  I now have a long sleeved t-shirt that says "Will Run for Chocolate" as well as a sweatshirt that says the same.  And my new running gloves I'm really happy with.

Oh and see the lack of pictures?  Even though I had my phone with me, I only took one the entire day.  So here it is:

I should also say, my knee was hurting.  After the race, it hurt quite a bit and I sat down to eat the fondue, which was a bad idea.  It was bad enough that I was limping a bit and it hurt to go up and down any hills.  Luckily, I laid off running the week after (and missed a 5K in Pittsburgh I really wanted to do) and my knee seems to be fine now.  I thought at first it was arthritis but I'm wondering if it was more.  And I blame it on the hour standing around in the cold.

Friday night we met up with some friends for dinner and I'm glad we got to do that as well!  I should visit DC again - it's not a bad drive and it would be nice to hang out longer next time.

Susan, Stephanie, and me - we all went to college together and majored in engineering.  

They pointed out that I'm the only one still in engineering. 

Maresha and me - we both got married in April 2008

Happy New Year! My resolutions for 2012...

Happy New Year, everyone!  I hope everyone had a good time celebrating, whether it was with sleeping cozily in bed, being out with friends/family, or even just spending time home with family.

I'll be honest, 2011 was one of my worst years, if not the worst one I've ever had.  But I'm hoping that will make 2012 even better, and I'm going to lean on God and be positive about the future!

I don't usually make resolutions but I decided there are some things I do want to do this year.  So here they are:

1. I ran 7 races (all 5ks) in 2011.  I'd like to beat that number in 2012.  And add in additional types of races- maybe a 10k and a 1b resolution is to run the Pittsburgh Half Marathon in May.  The training looks daunting, but we'll see!

2. Clean out our storage space by the middle of the year!  We're wasting money on that every month.  We got it when we were trying to sell our house, over a year and a half ago, to get rid of the clutter in our house.  And the fact that we haven't touched anything in there is saying something.  (And when I mentioned this one to Dave, he said this is really a resolution for both of us.  So sorry, Dave!  I made one for you, too.)

3. I'm going to try to blog more.  Even if things aren't going well and I don't want to talk about them in public (in a blog or anything like that) I want to find the positive things that are happening and talk about them.  Also, with Dave and me being so busy, this might end up being posts about the runs I'm doing but that will help with my first resolution.  I know I keep saying I'll blog more but I'm making it an official resolution now. :)  So this time I mean it!

So, for normally not making ANY resolutions, I have 3!  We'll have to see in 366 days how I did.

And here is the first picture of me in 2012, which Dave took at the party we were at last night.