Ramblings

I'm feeling very inclined to write, and this seems like a good enough outlet.



Walking water whispers



As I crouch next to the embankment,
I hear it - walking water whispers.



I look around for the voice,
I am alone.



I hear the rushing sound of the water,
Mother Nature tells me her secrets.



Nowhere to go, I slip off my clothes,
As I slip into the cool water I am energized.


I listen closer and it becomes clearer,
I smile.

Walking water whispers

Tega Cay Military Memorial 5K - Tega Cay, SC

Celebrating my 34th birthday would not be complete without a 5K race. Tega Cay is a fancy shmancy golf course community about 15 minutes south of Charlotte, NC, where we spent the weekend for my birthday. I recall another race on a golf course (see LG 5K) and thought, this should be about the same. What I neglected to recall was that most of South and North Carolina is considered mountainous or, at the very least, foothillsy.

My Aunt Nancy and my fabulous husband, Billy, both agreed to join in this event with me, but they decided to walk in the one mile family walk instead. There were maybe 50 people running and it started out nice. The weather was perfect! Sunny and cool enough that there was little to no humidity.

The organizers of the race, realizing that May 30th is the actual Memorial Day, allowed everyone to come dressed in their most patriotic running attire. I was a little disappointed that my Aunt Nancy and I were the only ones dressed in red, white and blue! Here is the picture of us with our patriotic garb on.

They had a (small) color guard to present the colors during the playing of the National Anthem. I don't care how small or large a group is, this tradition never fails to bring tears and a sense of pride for our great nation.

The start of the race was nice and smooth, but about 500m into the course, we hit a decline that dropped about 25 feet over about 20 yards. Holy crap! It was almost straight up and down. Out loud, to no one in particular, I said, "You have got to be kidding me!" The guy that was running next to me, looked at me and said, "Yeah, and we get to run back up this same hill!" Oh geez! I was thinking that I was pretty glad that I ran stadiums twice last week and my legs aren't totally going to hate me for running these crazy hills one more time!

It was a great course, very quiet and serene with some gorgeous views on the back nine (including all those hills!) As I crossed the finish line at 35:23, I thought that wasn't too bad for such a hilly course.

We hung around for the awards ceremony so Aunt Nancy and Billy could get their medals for finishing the walk, and I found out that I got 3rd place in my age category! Even better, I was the 4th female overall!!! I couldn't believe it!

And to make things even better; Aunt Nancy and I won for the patriotic costume contest. The hats that we were wearing we made. Well, OK, it's just a store bought visor with glittery foam stars on them, but still. It was a great race, a great day, and an awesome weekend!

Miles for Moffitt 5K

May race - Miles for Moffitt is a charity 5K for the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. My cousin, Michelle is the PIO for Moffit and she mentioned this race to me back in February when we came down for Gasparilla. Michelle, her husband Todd and thier friends Patty and Jen were all volunteering at water stations, so I was running solo.
It was super hot this morning and we had to get their early so a) I could pick up my packet and b) they could get to their assigned water stations. This meant I was there about an hour and 15 minutes before my race started and pretty much sat around until then too. By the time I reached the start line I was already dripping sweat, but I was determined to run a good race and my goal was to finish in sub 30 min. Didn't happen. It was too freaking HOT! And they didn't have enough water tables set up. There was also a 5 mile run that started a half hour before the 5K and we caught two of their water tables, but they were both in the first half of the 5K, so pretty much for the last 2.5K there was no water until we got to the finish line.
Unfortunately, I also didn't get any pictures either. Not to fear, I have a 5K in Tega Cay, SC on the 30th (one day before my birthday) and Billy and my Aunt Nancy are both going to be there. It sounds like its going to be fun. The the is America/Red, white and blue, and they are having a costume contest. The best running outfit with an american theme wins a prize. I bought a few things today, but I have another idea for a running outfit. I will definitely get pics from this race though and post them, so keep checking back.

xo,
K.

Leadership Gainesville 34 5K

I know I already ran a race for April, but I couldn't pass this one up. Each year, Leadership Gainesville holds a 5K race at Ironwood. This is pretty cool, because I live at Ironwood, so to show up for this race, I simply had to walk out my front door and across the parking lot to the club house. Pretty neat, huh?

I've run at the golf course before, when they were closed for Thanksgiving, or some rainy day, but it did not prepare me or give me an advantage for this race at all. The race course started in the middle of the 1st fairway and over the 9th fairway to pick up with the cart path. Then we followed the cart path to the 8th hole and went off the golf course into the woods! Yes we ran through the woods past the dumpster and back to the 9th hole, did a loop and finished on the cart path near where we started the race. It was kind of weird, but hey a 5K is a 5K and I love to run!

My friend Liz and her daughter Kayla came to see me run and take some photos for my scrapbook. That is them below.

Here's one she got of me at about mile 2, after my trek through the woods. My calves were killing me and I had to stop to stretch them out, so I probably would have had a better time than I did.I pushed myself for the last mile, I wanted to post a better time than my 5 points of life 5K and here's me crossing the finish line. My official time: 31:20. It's nice to shave almost a minute of your time.I also ran into my friend Wade at the race. Wade has been out of athletics due to a torn ACL and corrective surgery. This was his first race back and he did amazing! I think his time was 32:45 and he pushed me to run faster. (I couldn't let him and his gimp leg beat me! :-)

I'm not sure where my May race is going to be. It seems that the races that I am interested in doing all fall the day after I am on shift and they are all out of town. And with no vacation spots available, I have to find one that fits in with my schedule. There is a posibility that I will be going to North Carolina to visit my Aunt Nancy. If I go, then there is a 5K at Tega Cay, so I will do that. If I don't go, then it looks like the SunState/Great Gainesville Road race 5K on the 30th of May is going to be my May race.

Stay tuned to find out!

April Race - Iron Girl 10K (Clearwater)

April shower's bring May flowers, but there was hardly a drop of rain in sight as 1500 runners lined up for the Iron Girl 10K in Clearwater. I love this race because this was the first ever organized race that I ran last year.

The race starts at Coachman Park right on the water and we run over the Memorial Causeway bridge into Clearwater Beach, turn around and come back for a second go at the bridge. Below is a picture of the bridge:

It's huge! The first mile of the race is all uphill. It makes you consider your strategy. I don't train hills, because there aren't any in Gainesville, so once I made it to the top I was spent. And I still had 5 miles to go. My goal for this race was to beat last year's time which was 1:09:00.

I'm the blur of pink crossing the finish line. My time was 1:07:57, which beat last year's time! Yay! Below is a shot of me with the bridge after I conquered it - twice!Billy is such a trooper. Both years he has gone to this race with me and both years men are outnumbered. The Iron Girl race series is for all women. It's very empowering and they are all about celebrating women. When you approach the end they somehow know your name and the emcee yells out as you cross the finish line, "Iron Girl, Kristina Patten from Gainesville, finishing. Let's hear it! Those cheers are for you, Kristina!" It's really cool.

The swag you get is pretty neat too. This year we got a re-usable bag, a cute little AFLAC duck that talks and an awesome dri-fit running singlet. I'm wearing mine in the pictures.

It was a good race, a good day to race and a good trip overall.

Next race is at Ironwood (which is where I live) on the 15th. It's a 5K and my goal for this one is to finish in under 30 minutes.

Late entry about Sarah's birthday trip to the Keys

My baby sister turned 30 on March 22nd. Her birthday wish was to go to Key West for her 30th birthday. So, Sarah, Mandy (Sarah's BFF) and I packed up and headed to the islands to party like a rock star.

Sarah (on the left) and Mandy and Louie's BBQ. Which wasn't really what we were expecting. This place was super fancy and the dinners were pretty expensive, so we had a drink at the bar and headed to Duval Street.

I don't recall the name of this bar, but there were hundreds of dollar bills plastered to the walls, pillars, and bar. People sign them and staple them all over. It was pretty cool, so we had to make our mark as well.

Here is where the night started to get really fun. After hitting a couple of bars and restaurants and pretty much drinking our way down Duval Street we ended up at Cowboy Bills. It was only about midnight at this point, but look at our rock star now! She was passed out at the bar and we got kicked out because apparently bars don't like this practice. Mandy and I walked back to the hotel with her, tucked her old ass in bed and hit the town for some more drinking and fun.The famous Key West sunset celebration. It was overcast and cool, but they view was still amazing.

Our last night in the Keys, which was Sarah's actual birthday, we drove to Islamorada. We started out the evening at Lazy Days for dinner. Sarah wanted to try lobster and I wish I could have gotten a picture of her face when she took her first bite! She hated it!! But no fear, Mandy and I finished her dinner for her. The waiter brought her a piece of key lime pie with a candle and we sang 'Happy Birthday.' The next stop was the Lore Lei for some more drinks. Here we got hit on by some old guys who wanted us to come back to their condo. Not so much! In an effort to get away from them, we headed to the next bar - The Safari Lounge. What a dump! It was dark and smoky and the clientele was quite suspiscious looking. We had one drink and headed out of there and back to the Lore Lei. After there we headed to the Whistle Stop and shot some pool and had a great time. We were obviously not locals, so we got our fair share of looks, but who gives a shit!? We were having such a great time! The picture below is our re-incarnation of all the pics that we took this weekend. It seems that in every picture, someone had a strange look on their face.

I think she had a good time. Maybe 40 will be in Vegas. ;-)

Silver River Kayak Trip

Tuesday morning Rudy, Joe, John and I took our kayaks down to Ocala to the Silver River for a day on the river. The weather was perfect! We put in near the Oklawaha River and headed upstream to Silver Springs. About 20 minutes into our trip we passed a family of monkeys. These things are wild and crazy! I was terrified that they were going to try to jump right into my kayak. Everyone feeds them, so when they see people they expect that they are going to get food.

We also saw alot of alligators. I've never seen alligators this big in the wild. After I saw this gator, I went around the corner and took the second picture, but when I turned around, that big gator was right behind me! I screamed and started paddling like crazy to catch up with the guys.

When we got to Silver Springs we were paddling around the main spring right next to the Glass Bottom boats! There were a few tourists milling around and it was funny that we could just paddle right up in there. Of course, we weren't allowed to dock or get into the water, but it was still pretty cool.
Perfect weather and perfect company made this the perfect trip.