Bowling Time

The other evening we made our way to a bowling alley/arcade/lazer tag/ most awesome place ever with some friends.

We found out that after 8:45 we could bowl for a buck a person so we decided to try our luck in the arcade.

Heather had NO idea that Lori was pointing the gun her way 

ski ball is an intense sport

Bball tourney

the boys way too obsessed with killing things

 So Lori and I decided that since we basically rocked the Novice DDR we could manage the Medium level.

That resulted in both of us jumping up and down for 5 minutes laughing and seriously sucking at DDR.

Douggie successfully fitting his vibrams in the bowling shows

 Why yes, Brian is bowling in a walking cast

LOVE these ladies :)

I foresee many more nights of bowling and arcading ahead of us :)

A different kind of PR

This morning sucked.

I'm just going to be honest.

But let's start with last night. My great friend Ali and our other friend Vanessa road tripped it down to Colorado Springs and spent the night at Ali's parents house.

Her stepdad made us some fabulous spaghetti and we spent the evening lounging around.
And setting up our running gear, and oohing and ahing over our sweet free stuff!

We knew we had an early morning ahead of us and so we decided to presume with some Nyquil... straight from the bottle.

I have no idea why we have sunglasses, but it made sense at the time.

But I'd absolutely love for you to try and figure out what in the world is happening here :)

Thankfully the Nyquil knocked us out. Not that it made getting up at 5:30 any easier.

But we made it to the starting line and we were ready and rarin' to go!

And while I ALWAYS NEVER watch The Bachelor... :)

One of the old contestants (Andy I think) was there and spoke for a bit

Sarah Micke I have a feeling you know who this is

Then began the race.

I had already mentioned that I had planned on running this race for fun. My body has been crapping out on my lately and with the development of the allergies and asthma my breathing has been mediocre at best.

But it's easy to tell yourself that you're running for fun, and then there is the issue of actually doing it. Thankfully Ali read us a little devotion about being nice to our bodies when running and how by listening to our bodies they will actually thank us in the end!

Quite frankly I got a severe stomach cramp, as in my entire stomach seized up, and it was there for the first 4 miles or so... excellent.

Miles 5-8 were great and at mile 8 I truthfully didn't believe I was even going to finish the race. My entire body was weak and I even had to stop and sit a few times. I had chills for the last couple miles as well... kind of weird considering it was in the 80's.

And I walked like nobodies business. Typically I cringe at the thought of walking during any sort of run, but today I didn't care. I was nice to myself, I listened to my body, and I didn't beat myself up over the fact that I was going ridiculously slow.

And after making friends with some other women that were walking/jogging I finally made my way to the finish... 15 minutes slower than my half marathon last year in Korea... and 29 minutes slower than my Alaska time :)

But I finished.

Honestly this race was HORRIBLE, I have never felt worse during or after a run. 

And while I may not have run a great race, PR'ed or done anything amazing. I was able to listen to myself and be kind to myself. I had grace with my body's limitations, and that feels better than any time I could've gotten. 

and maybe tomorrow after my legs start working again I'll be able to take the advice of the fun necklace we got in lieu of a medal.

run.celebrate.laugh.

Allergies, Asthma, Awesomeness

If you've been reading this blog for any period of time you know that I've been training for half marathons quite consistently since January. I ran a race in April and quickly signed up for a race in July. And because I wanted some extra bonding time with my sis I decided to run another one in June in Alaska. 

So it's been a solid 7 months, and for some odd reason I hadn't been getting any better. Which is frustrating.  Sure I did great in Alaska, but going to sea level doesn't hurt. 

Since May I had noticed that breathing was getting difficult at times, and my heart rate was sky-rocketing within the first 20 minutes. I didn't bother with it until I got back from Alaska and realized something was up. I figured it was Exercise induced Asthma and called a clinic to get it checked out.

My first hint that this was going to be out of the ordinary is that they didn't know how to pronounce my name when they called to confirm the appointment.

Yes, they couldn't pronounce "Sara"... needless to say I was already feeling this place might be a little sketch.

When I arrived I informed the nurse that there was NO WAY I had any allergies, it was all asthma. So I took a breathing test... four times. I apparently cannot breath in and out of a tube properly.

I'm special.

Then the doctor came in. A short, stout indian man with a comb over and a limp started to check my ears, mouth, breathing, and last... my nose. As soon as he looked up my nose he shouted loudly and asked how I'd been breathing.

The man could not see any air passage in my nose. excellent. Allergy testing time.

69 pin pricks in my back, and 17 shots in my arm later, turns out I'm allergic to most weeds, grasses, animals, etc. basically EVERYTHING. And my body doesn't like to show outward symptoms... so it all settled into my nose.

Causing me to not get enough air, causing my snoring, and my constant sniffle.

And I had no idea earlier because the altitude and the dryness have triggered the symptoms. Thanks Colorado.

As ridiculous as finding out about all of this was, I am happy to have some sort of idea as to why it's been extremely difficult to breathe lately.

I left with this...

2 nose sprays (used every day)

2 inhalers

1 set of eye drops

I *think the nose spray has been working, but it's a little hard to tell.

I head back in this next week and if its not any better then I get a cat-scan of my deviated septum and if it's bad enough possibly surgery. 

don't you just love good news??

Anyway, the afore mentioned half marathon is this Sunday so we'll see how it goes. Quite frankly my body is a little on the tired side so I think this race will be purely for fun!

And if you wouldn't mind praying for my stuffed little nostrils... my terrified of surgery self would much appreciate it :)

Alaskan Adventure: The Fish

One of the many activities people could take part in was fishing. They took a charter fishing boat out to get Halibut (where everyone got quite sea sick) and then on a different day they did some Salmon fishing.

The Halibut fishing was extremely successful and there was a TON of fish and it all needed to be vacuum packed and frozen for everyone to bring home with them.

This later became an excellent meal.

There was a bbq sugar or cracker crumb salmon to choose from or we had a spice rubbed halibut and my personal favorite was the buttered herb halibut

i.die.

It literally melted in your mouth. and coming from someone who usually doesn't enjoy fish, it was a nice surprise :)

Alaskan Adventure: Top of the Mountain

Clearly the busyness of Alaska got to me and blogging took a break :) But that doesn't mean there was a lack of picture taking... on the contrary.

When all was said and done we took over 950 pictures... in 10 days. 

And with that said, I'm sad to say that we are officially back in Denver :( Quite frankly I think we'd both rather be in Alaska still... I guess the pictures will have to do!

Last Wednesday a group of people went salmon fishing while the rest of us watched the kids and then took a gondola up the mountain side!

getting ready to ride the tram

The cabin we are staying in is in the middle of that little circle of cabins

And because we felt the need rebecca and I hiked up the little mountain behind the chalet

sisters, sisters... there were never such devoted sisters...

Making our way down again!

Gorgeous views and so much fun!

Have I mentioned how much I love Alaska?

More Alaska posts to come!

Alaskan Adventure: Day of the Kids

Today most of the adults headed out to go fishing for halibut while the rest of us were up to the task of watching all the kiddos.

It was a bit on the exhausting side, but any time I get with all the nieces and nephews is definitely time well spent.

We spent our day biking, wrestling, and playing at the park!

Sophia and Maddy Mae

Henry Man

Jack and Benny Boo

The girls swinging with Uncle Jon

Sammies playing in the sand

Henry Man going "down" the slide

It's slightly embarrassing when your 3 1/2 yr old nephew successfully makes it across the balance beam better than you do...

Uncle Jon was the robber and the kids were chasing him down

Mari making her way across the bars and Mason enjoying our bike ride.

I so enjoy being able to spend all of this time with the kids. It makes me a little sad that the time we get to spend together is so far and few between. But we're making it up for it with lot's and lot's of time together this vacation :)

I'm wondering what my odds would be of convincing all of my sibling to move to Colorado so this isn't such a rare occurrence...

Tomorrow... white water rafting!!