Another one under the belt

I did it again folks...I joined about 12,000 other runners and ran from the beautiful Timberline Lodge all the way to the sandy beaches of Seaside. Yep, thats right, Hood To Coast took place this weekend and it was great!! It was a fun, torterous, painful, sleep deprived, cold, sweaty, stinky time that I always look back on with fond memories. During the experience I may not be so fond of it (like while I'm running my third leg thinking "why the HECK do I do this to myself every year??") but afterwards there is such a feeling of accomplishment and excitment (not energy, mind you) and I vow to do it again the next year. Here are a few pictures to show just how fun it was. I didn't take too many so hopefully once I get the rest from the other team members I'll post a few more. :) Oh, and if your curious, I ran leg 2, leg 14, and leg 26 (if you'd like to see the legs, click here).

Van 1...Go Team Go!
Oh behold the power of the pink and black arm band!
Ryan, Teresa, and me. :)
Sam and I at Seaside after our last legs...yeah, she had a chance to shower and has on a super cute running outfit from Columbia Sportswear. So not fair. :)
The fam. My parents love (LOVE) to come out on Saturday to cheer us on. It's great. They are so supportive. I give them a hard time but I do love them and they do love us!

Oh, the Oregon Coast

Saturday, Andrew and I headed to the beach to escape the extremely hot weather in P-town. Wow, was it quite the opposite at Seaside. As you can see from the pictures below, it was quite foggy and misty. It was a nice break from the heat and we had a blast.

I am not a big fan of being in Oregon water. Hello, IT'S FREAKIN FREEZING!!! But to prove a point, here I stand.

One of the best parts of the day (I have to selfishly admit) was finding something with my name on it. If you haven't realized this, Tabitha is not the most common of names, which makes it very hard to find things that say Tabitha (like those oh so exciting state keychains and pencils and whathaveyou). Andrew saw these nameplate things in a store and said he would look for my name and I was like "go ahead, you won't find it" 'cause I never do! And what in the world did he come across? MY NAME!!! I think I squealled in the store and then kept looking at it the rest of the day in disbelieve. So, there you have it. This is only the second thing in my life that has had my name on it (that wasn't specifically requested). SO FUN!!! I just had to share.

Here Andrew is trying Sea Foam for the first time. I think he liked it...
To cap off our afternoon at the beach (and for those that may be heading to Seaside sometime soon) we ate at a great little restaurant called McKeown's that was recommened to us by a local so of course we had to check it out. The place was cute, the food was quite tasty and the people were extremely friendly.

Quite a day... (and a long post)

Yesterday was, well..."Quite the day." And I do mean that in only the best sense of the statement.

First I got to hang out with a bug expert and artist extraordinaire. Haven is her name and she is one of the smartest going into 2nd graders I've ever met. And she's cute to boot. Anyway, she told me all about the bugs that she has at home (like praying mantises and their egg sacks - gross if you ask me) and then all the plastic bugs she was playing with in the office. She decided to draw pictures from the bugs view and then put the plastic creatures on the pictures so I could see just how they lived. It was all quite educational.

Here is the little artist at work

This is Haven.

Oh, I am so glad these are plastic!

After work (yes, that was hard work folks. Do you know how much I don't like bugs?) Andrew and I went downtown so I could introduce him to my favorite place to get grilled fish taco's. Yum!

The restaurant is called Peppino's. It's a great little restaurant nestled into the middle of 23rd street that is just too fun to eat at 'cause it's got indoor and outdoor seating, the food is fabulous and cheap and it's fun and colorful inside. Oh and try and find the wobbly table, that always makes any meal a little more exciting. Can you tell I like my taco's?

Then we headed over to Mia Gelato's (well, after walking up and down and in and out of pretty much every shop that was open, which wasn't that many surprisingly) and had a little taste of Europe. Oh how I loves me some gelato! I mean, it's just so dang delicious and always tastes exactly like what they say it is. Yeah, I know that sounds weird, but it's not like regular ice cream and if you've ever eatin gelato then you know what I'm talkin' about. It's always so hard to choose between all the fabulous flavor's they offer, which leads me to another reason why I love gelato so much. They encourage you to taste, taste, taste them all. I love people and places like that. That should not come as a surprise if you know me at all. I'm a taster and a nibbler. Hmmm...that was totally beside the point. Coming back to gelato. Yes, Andrew, I'll stop rambling and get to the point. :) I had their cinnamon (oh my gosh it was SO GOOD!) and Andrew had their peach sorbetto. It was quite tasty as well, especially when I took a little bit of his and meshed it with a little bit of mine. Wow, dare I say it was a little taste of heaven? Hello, cinnamon and fruit!

ANYWAY, it was a great day and evening and I just had to share all the wonderful things I enjoyed with you, my few and faithful readers. :)

I'll leave you with this fun picture. :)

Your results:
You are The Flash

The Flash		80%
Spider-Man		75%
Supergirl		68%
Superman		65%
Green Lantern		65%
Wonder Woman		58%
Robin		58%
Catwoman		55%
Hulk		45%
Iron Man		35%
Batman		15%

Fast, athletic and flirtatious.

PAMIC members UNITE!!!

I am a proud, would be card toting if they had them, member of the group PAMIC. If you don't know to what I am refering then you need to read this little blog post on one of the most hilarious blogs I have ever read called Stuff Christians Like. After you read the post and you do not agree with the manifesto for PAMIC then read this post. Then you should just click around and read what other things this guy has to say. He is pretty stinkin' hysterical! Enjoy and maybe come back and let me know what you think.

Oh how I love my country!

I just watched this online and OH MY GOSH!!! SO AMAZING!!!! Watch it for the first time or for the 100th, it just doesn't get old. :)
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/share.html?videoid=0811_HD_SWB_HL_L0194

Oh, and by the way...that 6.5 miles yesterday? Yeah, left me a little sore. Takes me back to the days of summer volleyball training in high school. Fun times, let me tell ya. Feels good though. I definitely appreciate that pain a lot more now than I did back then. :)

Fessing up

Well, I'm gonna admit something you, my little faithful readers, that I don't even admit to my closest friends. I actually don't like to run at the gym. I know, I know, it sounds crazy coming from me seeing how much I love running races. But it's true, and that actually isn't all of it. I just don't like to really run (well, not far at least) unless I'm running in a race. The statement is still definitely true that I love to run races (still love and glad I got my tattoo) but I think I like to run races because it's competitive and because there is a goal and an end. When I'm running outside or on the treadmill there really isn't something pushing me - no finish line to cross, no one to hand off the baton to - and that makes it not as exciting or a rush to run. Does that even make sense? Now if you know me at all you know I am a gym fanatic and work out on a regular basis. You all probably thought I ran a lot, and I maybe didn't stop you from thinking that. I'm terrible, I know. And I do run, just not a lot, and what I usually do is utilize all the other machines at the gym and then run/walk on the treadmill at the end of my stay in the mornings. Yeah, I'm lame and now slightly embarrassed but I knew I had to be honest with all you bloggers out there and let you in on the horrible truth I've been trying to hide.

I say all this because - GUESS WHAT?!?! I've been running more at the gym! It's crazy, but true. I don't even understand it. Well, I do. Hood 2 Coast is coming and I realized that I really needed to actually try and train for it this year, especially since my first leg is leg 2 and pretty much downhill all the way (it starts at Government camp I believe). I'm also dating this guy who runs for 2 or 3 miles straight when he goes to the gym and couldn't tell him that he actually runs more than me on a regular basis. How pathetic am I? And I couldn't have him running more than me, no no (watch out folks, here comes Tabs competitive streak). Anyway, all that to say, I ran 6.5 miles straight this morning on the treadmill and I just wanted to share that oh-so-not-exciting news with everyone. It says a lot to me when I'm still feeling a little sore this afternoon but I do love that feeling because I know I'm doing something right. I'm also telling you this because I want to be accountable to all of you out there. I need to be accountable to someone (it helps sometimes, ya know?) and you guys seemed as good as anyone (any group). :) So, I'll be keeping you all in the loop, as I slack and as I up my miles or whatever. Who knows, maybe next year I'll finally get around to actually doing a full marathon. Oh, yikes!

Anyway, sorry to completely bore you all to tears but I had to share my thoughts and get this lie I've been living off my chest. :) I love you all, my faithful readers. Sorry I'm so lackadaisical in my blogging, hopefully I'll get better.

Have a great day!

Trip to Colorado

My oldest friend in the world - Dave Elgen. Pretty great guy! We go back almost 20 years to the old days of Germany. :) It had been too long since we hung out so I decided it was time to take a little trip to the beautiful state of Colorado and visit my friend.

More pictures to come, don't you all worry. :)