No, I won't SIT!

My dog is teaching me patience as I take her for her walk in the morning.  There are a few life lessons I could use from my dog.

Patience - my dog has bowels of steel.  How can she go on a 30 minute walk, starfish as we leave the door only to wait until we are back home to take a dump by MY front door?  That is a lesson in patience that I need, that good things come to those who wait, if you think you can do it, you can do it.  But especially, its amazing how fast you can walk when you have to go to the bathroom - great exercise!

Ask for the belly scratch - if you don’t ask for it, then you won’t get it.  I could do what she does and walk over to my husband on the couch and fall on my back in his lap with a happy look on my face?  Or I could lick his leg to get his attention?  If I don’t ask for it then I won’t get it - and when I do it feels oh, so good.

Nothing like stretching - I wish I could stretch my legs the way my dog can stretch hers.  She can be in mid walk, stop do a full stretch then continue about her way.  I try to stretch and muscles say, “wait a minute, what are you trying to do to us, we’re gonna cramp up on you!”  Better yet, find something soft to lay on and go into full stretch mode.

Stop to smell the poo - I know she has things to do, especially go to the bathroom the minute we walk out the door, but she always has time to stop and smell the poo.  It teaches me that I too, must stay up to date on the neighborhood happenings, she reads the poo, I should take the time to read the news.

It feels good to rip something up - sure it’s my underwear, the boys stuffed animals, a few stray socks, but she’s taught me to let my energy out - to rip things up a little bit.  Sometimes just because it feels good, and other times for attention - especially if falling in my husband’s lap doesn’t work - I’ll rip up his underwear!

My dog teaches me to love unconditionally, to accept everyone with their flaws and always, I mean always be happy to see them.  What lessons has your dog taught you?

Race Day Report = Game Face

First race in a series called Race The Bar, different bars around Greensboro and Winston, increasing distances with each race - but time with friends and free beer at the end! So I came with friends, everyone looking at each other saying, "Oh yeah, I'm here for the free beer at the end, nothing big."

Didn't help the sun decided to come out right as the race started and with 100% humidity and 80 degrees yours truly was VERY happy (NOT) but I stood at the starting line looking around thinking, "Hmmm, I came to have fun, who am I kidding, I came to kick some asphalt and now I'm rethinking my plan because there are a lot of really fit looking people here!"  Did it help I ate a pound of twizzlers pre race as a sugar fix - same said candy now sitting like a rock in my stomach.  Walking to the starting line, there's a guy IN NEON, standing behind a tree peeing - really?

I quietly draw my group of friends to the front of the pack, where all the speedy people start and get out my headphones.  Some are saying, "If it's hills, I'm not doing well, others - it's so hot right now."  I'm thinking, "The sooner I get this over the better, let's just get the show on the road."

Making the same mistake I make in every 5K, as the gun goes off I start out WAY too quick, the twizzlers now tapping at the back of my throat.  I pay for that fast start with a very difficult mile 2, the sun beating on my head, heat radiating from the asphalt under my feet.  By mile 2.5 I'm thinking, "I really could walk this, my mind kicks in and says, "If you're not giving it your all, then you don't need to be here." I throw water in my face and on my head at the water stop and feel better.   I am very excited about the downhill and as I finally hit my stride, it's OVER!"

I was over 25 minutes, and once the nausea was gone, ready for the free beer.  I hang with friends laughing about my 67th place finish until I hear my name called as 1st place Masters Female!  We are all surprised as everyone in the group places in age groups and we're all holding victory pints!  Later when checking the results, I see I won by 32 seconds - had I stopped AT ALL I'd be in second place.  My friends say they thought about running but all of us in a line seeing each other continuing to run kept the momentum!  Next race is in May.

So sure the race sucked, it was hot, it was humid but we are all winners!  Staying the course and putting everything in to it is what makes racing FUN and EXCITING!  Do you give it your all?  Oh and neon guy, I think I beat him too!

Stopping by Washing Machine on a Snowy Evening

BY Kelly Melang

Whose Underwear these are I think I know.   

Is it the little butt that I know?   

He will not see me throwing them in the machine   

To watch his briefs fill with steam.   

My sweet husband must think it queer   

To find a pair of briefs so dear   

Between the bras and workout gear   

Some of the smells I fear.   

I toss the drawers up and away   

Hoping detergent will have its way.   

The only other sound’s the hum   

Of easy dryer as it runs.   

The piles are huge, dark and deep.   

whites and darks and colors in a heap,   

And piles of laundry to go before I sleep,   

And piles of laundry to go before I sleep

Today my life was a Hallmark Movie, specifically I crashed the set of a Hallmark Movie filming downtown running this morning.  I think my 15 seconds of fame will end on the cutting room floor because it consisted of me running down the street, me being stopped by a policeman, yelled 

 “didn’t you see the barricades,”  the policeman yells as I hear sighs by the group of people I'm running in between.

“oh, those?  I thought they were for cars," I smile at the camera and pick up my pace.

So during the next hour and half of my run I wondered what type of Hallmark Movie would I star in, and I came up with the perfect formula.

Love on the Run is a new movie on the Hallmark Channel.  Staring Ashley Judd (isn’t she in all the Hallmark movies?)as Kelly Melang a woman entrepeneur, runner and writer who just can’t find love as she lets everything in her life take priority.

Love on the Run is a story of a chance meeting, a different running route and the story would never happen.  A chance meeting by running into local Rockstar, Raif Strange (played by Matthew McConaughey), a rock star with six pack abs, brooding blue eyes, a sensitive side (don't they all have this in Hallmark movies?)  Raif doesn't believe in love, he's been jilted by his supermodel girlfriend (of course Kelly is prettier) and running to forget about love and loss.  After meeting Kelly and liking her ENGAGING (this part of the movie IS true) he enlists the help of Kelly as he trains for his first race, the Valentine’s Sweetheart Race.  What the two star crossed lovers don’t realize is there are boyfriends and girlfriends that want them back, the issue of trust between them and a lot of other road blocks in the road.

Will Raif and Kelly find love on the run?  Will they run from the love they both know is there?  Or will the secret Kelly is hiding tear them apart and leave them running FROM each other.  (ooh, what secret - she loves barefoot running?  or that she is a secret heiress?)

Love On the Run is the newest and most exciting movie on the Hallmark Channel, a new direction of fitness love, that love of fitness and love can intertwine and you never know, choose a difference direction and find that one that completes your soul as you run into the sunset together.

I trip over some electrical wires and am brought back to the present.  Well, I guess my fifteen minutes of fame is over.  What would the trailer of your Hallmark Channel sound like?

Ahhhh.....

here are things in life that simply make you go ah, that feeling of yeah, this is exactly what it’s supposed to be and life it good.

When we were kids, "ah" moments didn't come to often, we were too busy getting on with life.  I do remember one "ah" moment as a child, when you're be out playing, or swimming, or running, or just going full force doing something and would stop for some food, a snack of your favorites - that first taste after all that exercise, your taste buds go, "ahhh."  As adults since we've lost our taste buds to age, create different "ah" moments.

My son sang this weekend with All County Chorus and sitting and watching 100 children sing was that “ah” moment.  There is nothing sweeter than children’s voices as they sing together - it is one of the perfect moments of innocence.  Not the happy birthday we always hear at a party, but a sweet lullaby or classical song with a conductor and the perfect of practice with professional.  If you’ve never listened to a children’s choir, you’ve never had that “ah” moment.

That first sip of coffee in the morning, it’s still dark outside, and you’re sluggish.  But that first sip brings warmth to your body, good taste in your mouth and a slow “ah” from a brain that understands, “oh yes, now it is time to wake up.”  This is why I invest in good coffee, I want a more prolonged “Ah” moment, want to move it from “ah” to “ahhhhh?”  Time it just right and watch the sun rise with that warm goodness in your hand.

A great shirt.  Marilyn Monroe once said, “your clothes should be tight enough to show you’re a woman, loose enough to show you’re a lady.”  The perfect shirt creates this “ah” moment not because you found the bargain/deal/perfect item but how it makes you feel.  It’s that piece that makes you feel sexy, that moves you from the soft sweatshirts of a Mom to a woman, that says, “yeah, I can start my day with this, I feel confident.”

And who can leave out that Moment, that “ahhh” moment with the one you love.  Get your mind out of the gutter, it’s that moment where you look over and think, “damn, I love that guy.”  Nothing like watching a man hold and tend to a baby, or when you realize that they’ve left the house on a Saturday morning with the children and you’ve WAY overslept, or of course when they look at you in your perfect shirt and say, “you look beautiful.”

“Ah” moments are those moments of little things, the sweet sound of a child’s voice singing, a moment with yourself as your body slowly starts awakening, anything that builds confidence and of course a simple moment when you realize you are blessed.  Take the time to find these moments in your day and at the end as you sink into the bed and reflect, I’ll guarantee you’ll be thinking, “ahhhh.”  What happens after that is totally up to you.  What are your “ah” moments?