Marathon

Back in March I decided to train for the Portland Marathon. It was one of the highly ambitious no common sense Laura moments where I really think I have the time, energy, and patience to do something.

Then when that something comes around I have no common sense and energy and patience to actually train for it. So on Sunday I tried to run the marathon when I hadn't trained since end of August. I call it "Hensleying it" b/c I get that from my father. I watched him many times throughout my life just do something when he wasn't really prepared for it and it usually turned out okay. Guts and Gumption were my motto. I figured it would hurt and I played it up in my head that it would be horrible b/c then it might be one of those things that wasn't so horrible but at least I prepared for the worst. It was horrible... it was everything I thought it would be. Don't you hate it when you are right.

If you ever wondered what running a marathon is like here is my play by play (this is more for my memory than your interest):

Mile 1:

Holy cow it is raining hard and cold... why am I in WAVE A. Why am I at the beginning and not back towards the end? Guy next to me says it is the worst weather he's ever ran in and he's done 7 of these. Why did he tell me that? Jerk. Am I wearing too much clothing? Why are they all almost naked? Where are their supplies? Gel? Camelbacks? Once again why am I starting at the beginning? OH, and we are off. Oh... this is fun... there is music and drummers... nice. This older man in front of me looks like he has a good pace. I will draft him. Man everyone is running fast.

Mile 4:

Okay I'm tired. Should I be tired so early? Everyone is still passing me and running fast. Your okay Laura stay tight and contained. You got a long ways to go. Just keep staring at all the hot guys, man some hot guys run this thing. Everyone has great legs. Oh take the GEL. Yes that is better.... maybe I should've ate more this morning than one banana.

Mile 10:

Good-bye Half Marathoners... really tempted to go with them. Now the pack is smaller and not so many people passing me. Legs hurt, but not intolerable. Maybe I should get my ipod out now. UGH! My fingers are so swollen can't work my ipod all I can get to play is Jagged Little Pill! Okay doing good... tight and contained just make it to mile 14 running then you can walk a little. Gel again... like that gel... I'm hungry. So wet out. Who set my hamstrings on fire?

Mile 14:

YES! Can I quit now? Really why do we run anymore than this. Okay now it is like giving birth b/c when you want to stop you can't. Every muscle hurts, people are starting to stop and stretch. Maybe I should stretch, but I'm afraid to stop... maybe I won't be able to start again. Okay here is the plan Laura you run until you can't. You run until your legs tell you to stop. Good plan. Just passed a speedwalker... and no, she just passed me... stupid speedwalkers. Can I get the epidural now? I can see the bridge... just make it to the bridge. Pacers 4:30 are still behind you... doing good Laura (lots of cheerleading at this point)

Mile 18:

HELP... I want to cry. OMG my legs hurt. Why it the road so bumpy? I need thicker insoles. Need more gel... no more gel... I'm screwed... okay make it until your legs quit... legs quit... guts and gumption. Think of BCS. Bobby Gaeta would be telling me suck it up and run faster :) He had guts and gumption. Run with me BCS. Who is stabbing my knee? Two more miles than you can walk. Bob Seger playing "Fire inside" I got a fire inside my entire body.

Mile 20:

And I'm walking... but it's so cold. Not an inch of me is dry. OMG my legs hurt and my forearms which is weird. But I can walk... walk two miles Laura then you can run again, maybe your knees will feel good by then. Hello port o potties... it's warm in here. I think I will stay in here for a little bit to warm up. If someone just gave me a sweatshirt I think I could do this thing. I could call for a ride? NO... do it! Think of childbirth... you can walk six miles in the rain with the pain. Contractions were WAY worse. Seriously though if I could take a pain pill right now I think I could run this to the end. Lots of people running now and then walking and then stretching. How do they do that? All I can do is walk. When I try to run I feel like my knees will break off. This is a really nice neighborhood.

Mile 23:

OH GOD... not down hill... that hurts a whole other group of muscles.... need the techno going now. At least I'm passing people... finally at mile 23 I'm passing people. Pretty sure the 4:30 pacer group is ahead of me by several minutes... okay hours. Must've passed me when I was warming up in the pot o potty (don't laugh... it was warm in there). Is that beer up ahead. NICE they are handing out beer. Okay I need something harder... and no just one cup of beer. WHATEVER. So cold. DO IT LAURA DO IT... look at that guy... wow is he hurting... and he looks in much better shape than me. Amazing how it doesn't matter what appearances look like... it's about your strength in side. Okay maybe I can run this last three miles... ouch ouch ouch... try faster.... OUCH! Okay and I'm walking.

Mile 25:

I can't believe I'm going to make it. Starting to tear up. WOW this is an amazing journey. But really why do humans do this? I guess it's the downside to having the ability to reason and therefore have an ego. I'm pretty any other species would look at us like, "What's the point?" I'm sure my Jack Russel would've quit at mile 4 b/c he tired and when you are tired you quit and conserve your energy, but not crazy humans. If we think it will really hurt and therefore make us special we do it. THIS IS THE LONGEST MILE EVER. I have to run the end... I have too. It hurts, but I'm running. Ann is up there somewhere and I have to run when she sees me or what's the point. You can do it Laura you can do it... BCS... BCS! I see ANN! I'm so excited... I have fans. THAT does feel good! I can do this... look how happy Ann is for me... okay I can do this. TURN THE CORNER and there is the finish line! I DID IT! I can't believe it. They announced my name... and I crossed it. Okay I really just want to hug the girl giving me the space blanket and cry and tell her how hard it was and sit down... why don't they have benches?

Mile 26.2

Teeth are chattering... so cold and wet... legs hurt, knees hurt, neck hurts... just want to eat or sleep or take a bath. I can't function. But I did it. I finished. Bucket List number whatever... BIG CHECK!

MILE 25.itwillneverend

Ann Jason and Natalie met me at the end... I am posing for this (standing still) b/c when I saw them they were all surrounding Natalie trying to get her to stop waving the giant yellow umbrella around and hitting people. I had to yell "ANN"! I wish I would've had a picture of that.

Clancy One Year

How did you go from picture three to picture two and one? I am confused? Nice to see you have food on you in both... that's a Hensley. Also nice to see you are confident enough to wear your pink cupcake bid AND play with your Tonka truck. On your way to professional ballerina who flies his mom to NY on the weekends to watch you perform and meet all your famous ballerina girlfriends and then also owns 100 sheep and wranglers on the side. Yes, that is how your parents think about your future. They wish you to grow up and be just like them but better. Okay that last picture is driving me crazy... someone wipe that milk off his cheek!

Sorry this is just a tease. I find it harder to social network nowadays. I would rather you all just come over and see the pictures on my laptop or I email them to you. Still refuse to facebook so don't even say it... if you know my past you know why... yes I was a professional ballerina who use to sell sheep on the black market.

Laptop Pictures, your FAVORITE!

I should really just have a blog devoted to the pictures one can take on a Mac laptop. I think I would have a pretty big following.... of my friends and family that already follow my blog. Clancy and Matt came to visit me after work one day and these are the pictures that followed.

Matt's hot. I think him and Clancy are making the same face.

Not your best angle baby boy... Auntie Carrie needs to teach you your camera pose.

Oh, much better... this is a good power pose. You show those highlighters who is the boss! Clancy is the boss! Boss of my sanity level and sleep level and bicep strength level. AMAZING how strong those puppies get just holding him and for once in my life something on the left side of my body is stronger than the right (b/c you carry him with the left arm to free up the right.. for those of you who didn't catch that). He is crawling now. HOLY COW why didn't someone tell me my house was so dirty and all this stuff was all over the place. He puts stuff in his mouth I'm convinced teleported to my house b/c I do not remember it being there before. This morning we found carpet in his mouth while buckling him in the car. CARPET? The other day I found some sort of tape, parts of a noodle, pine needle, and my favorite dirt. ?????????? I give up... no I don't b/c if I do he will choke and die. Just realized my life has been turned upside down and I wish I lived in one of those houses that is decorated so modern they don't have any furniture, carpets, or stuff... just air. Air is the major decorating focal point. Clancy try to choke on air... ha ha! Mom 1, Clancy 0!

All Kinds of Activities

What's been going on with the Debricks?

1. Clancy is wearing 18 months clothes b/c he needs the extra room in the waist. I don't have the heart to tell him he is only 8 months old. He doesn't need a complex.

2. Matt and I are going to Reno the first weekend in June for a sheep show. I've never been to a sheep "convention" of this sorts. Nor Reno. Is it like a Star Wars convention and everyone dresses like their favorite sheep breed and we tour various booths and discuss if the Death Star really could've made foot fungus disappear? No? I kid. It's where all the big names in the sheep biz show up and show and sell their sheep. Big deal... Big DEATH STAR deal! I'll try to have pictures for you. Clancy isn't going... OMG it's a date. What should I wear?

3. I signed up to run the Portland Marathon 10/10/10. St. Agatha is my team name. I'm the only one in my team. I'm accepting applications. St. Agatha is one of the patron saints of breast cancer.

4. Matt spends most of his time either in the sheep barn, sheep field, feed store, his truck, the trailer attached to the truck, or home.

5. We are coming to Iowa in June. We will leave probably the 17th or 18th and arrive in Omaha area the 20th or 21st. Clancy and I will be at mom and dads most of the time. Matt will be sheeping it with Tyson "big deal" Rule in Haywarden (sp?) Iowa and then down to Missouri for the Midwest Ram Sheep Show (something like that). Is there an update I typed that didn't involve sheep in it?

So pictures... pictures... pictures... I think they are in the Death Star.

What's new...

You know what's not new... this background and my pictures! Good lord I'm bad at this blog stuff.

Easter...

Clancy and his great grandpa Ben. Yes, Clancy is 25 now and in med school. I mean really, doesn't he look so old? When did that happen? I swear I've been paying attention.

Our little Catholic....

Helmet boy

I call this "Natalie At Window"... part of her wander aimlessly collection.

WE did it! They are Catholics. We continued the line of many many many many generations of Wolf, Reinig, and Hensley Catholics. Check that off the list of accomplishments.... whew. I did feel like this was the first milestone I "got done" in Clancy's life. Baptism then off to first day of school. I was Natalie's Godmother and Dad was her surrogate Godfather. Ann was Clancy's Godfather and Matt's brother Mike was his Godfather. It is a tradition in the church that the babies were all white, so no I was not trying to go for the Elvis during the Vegas years with Clancy's clothes.

Joe and Deb are like grandparents to Clancy and will be wonderful spiritual leaders for him, probably better than his mom and dad! Doesn't Clancy look like a doll in that picture? It is him right?

THE DRESS... PUFFY SLEEVES!

Clancy did really well with the water, but tried to avoid the "holy spirt"... Matt leaned over and whispered it was his side that was causing all the trouble.

Natalie wasn't sure why we wanted to put her hair in that bowl... and really... she brings up a good point.

Love this picture... PUFFY SLEEVES AND BOW IN THE BACK... wish I could wear that dress.

AGH... why are they sooooo cute. Can't stand it sometimes.