Happy Boo to You!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Here is the pumpkin that Benj carved this year. If you know who this is, then I will venture to say that you watch too many internet cartoons! For the rest of it, it is a character called "Bubs" from the Homestar Runner. Last year Ben carved out Homestar, himself, so this year he stayed with the theme. I think it turned out really well. Bubs has a good face for a halloween pumpkin! I hope we get a few trick-or-treaters this evening. I am thinking we'll have 4--just our neighbor kids. But, that's two more than last year! We made up special little bags for them and filled them full of candy. This way we won't have so much left over, too. Anyway, hope you get lots of treats today...

Relaxing Weekend

I haven't done much at all this weekend. How great is that?! Sometimes it sure is nice just to sit back and relax. Ben and I cleaned the house and did laundry on Friday, so the past two days I feel like I am at a loss as to what to do....not that that is a bad thing.

Ben had his interview here at Kirksville on Friday. He felt like it went pretty well. I know he is glad to have it over. Now, we just have to hope that they will give him a spot. He is really wanting to stay here for the anesthesia residency, but so are a couple of other students, so we'll have to wait and see what happens. He's got more interviews coming. Next weekend is Des Peres in St. Louis. He's been so busy lately that he hasn't gotten to do his favorite activities. Today he is out turkey hunting. I am hoping that he doesn't bring one home, we don't need any more game in our freezer. Anyone want some turkey or dove??

This weekend was Truman's homecoming and they had a 5K race on Saturday morning. I decided to go ahead and run in it, just for fun. It's weird to say this, but I think that running the 5K was nearly as hard as doing the longer distances. There's not much time to get into a rhythm, plus, I swear they picked a course with the most hills possible. Really, I didn't realize there were so many hills here! Anyway, I finished in 24:34 and came in 4th for my age group.

Oh, and I got an email about some pictures that were taken at the marathon....Here is a link if you are interested in seeing a few more pictures of me.

http://www.backprint.com/go.asp?24128013

I did it!

Well, I made it through my half marathon! And I'm not too much worse for the wear. My goal was to run it in less than two hours, so mission accomplished! Here is a copy of my stats from the KC marathon website:

Summary number of finishers: 2585
number of females: 1487
number of males: 1098
average time: 02:13:02

Laci Schrant
bib number: 4448
age: 25
gender: F
location: Kirksville, MO
overall place: 746 out of 2585
division place: 67 out of 368
gender place: 248 out of 1520
time: 1:57:20
pace: 8:58
gun time: 1:58:19

I was pretty happy with that for my first time!

The course was really beautiful. We started at Crown Center, ran around the Plaza, past the Liberty Memorial, through the Jazz district, and ended at the Freight House District right by Union Station. There were several fountains to look at, bands playing, and lots of people all along the course to cheer us on. It was really a neat experience. I had a great time.

As far as running the race, I started off with the 3:45 marathon pacer--these pacers are crazy, by the way. The are supposed to run the marathon in a specific amount of time and carry this stick that says their time on it for the entire run so others can follow them and get their pace. I don't know how anyone can do that, but anyway... So, the full-marathoners ran with us until mile 6. I felt really good and about mile 10, I was thinking maybe I could have tried the marathon. Not for long though, about 2 miles later I was wondering what had gotten in to me. I started to feel a little nauseous in my last mile, but I knew that I was so close, so I tired to pick up my pace as much as I could at that point. As I turned the last corner I saw Ben's mom and brother Danny and it gave me a burst of energy. Then as I came down the home stretch I spotted Ben, his other brother Tyler, and both of my parents. I was able to wave at them and finish up with a smile on my face. It was so nice to have people there to cheer me on! I really appreciated everyone coming out so early in the morning to see me run. After we finished we were given medals and some food to snack on. Unfortunately, my nausea came back as I tried to eat something and within 10 minutes of finishing I had to throw up. I know....kind of disgusting...sorry! But, the good news is that I felt so much better afterwards and was able to really enjoy the day. Sunday I was a little sore, but really, not too bad. So, now I can say I did it, I ran 13.1 miles, something I never, ever thought would be possible.

Here is a link to a few pictures from the race.

KCmarathon

It's Coming...

Well, it's already Wednesday. I can't believe that my race is only a couple of days from now. We are leaving here around noon on Friday, so that we can get to KC and check in to get our race packets. I think that we may drive around the course a little to get an idea of what it is like. I was reading about it online and I think that I am going to be pretty lucky. It sounds like there are only two major hills on the route and the last four miles are flat or downhill. Yay! Thank you to the course designer!! I am starting to get a teensy bit nervous, but I am pretty excited, too. Pray for me!

On another note, I went to a stampin' up party at Jodie's this week and made my first stamp purchase! So, I guess I have a new hobby, now. I am not so much of a creative person, but I think it will be fun to make cards and see what I can do. So, if you get a home-made card from me...don't laugh, I'm really just starting! I haven't gotten my supplies yet, so I'll have to keep you updated on this little venture.

Yum-O

 

These are the BEST cinnamon rolls I have ever had. The Manhattan makes them and I am just so excited to eat them tonight. If you have never had them, let me just say, you are really missing out. Tom and Jodie asked us over for chili this evening. Benj and I were already planning on making alpine potato soup for Josh and Wendy, so we're just going to all get together for a night of soup and games. And what goes better with a bowl of soup than a nice warm cinnamon roll?? It has been cold and rainy all day...a perfect night for this. We also went to the farmer's market and Red Barn Arts and Crafts festival today--the Kirksville event of the year. It would have been better if the weather had coorperated, but it was neat to see all of the vendors. It made me want to be a little more crafty. Anyway, I hope your dinner will be as tasty as ours will be!

I love The Office!

Which Office Character Are You?
	You are Pam. You are sweet and likable, but your shyness makes it hard for you to express yourself sometimes. Regardless, you are always there for your friends and will usually come out of your shell to help anyone.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

Turns out I'm most like Pam...

I don't know how accurate this is, but I like Pam, so I guess it's okay :-)

And...as a little bit of trivia....Jenna Fischer did attend Truman State University!

Fun Evening

I had a busy night last night (at least it was busy for my exciting life). Right after work I met with a friend and had dinner at Il Spazio. I just had soup and a side salad, but it was really good and nice to catch up with Lisa.....thanks for thinking of me while my hubby is gone! Then, I went to cooking club for SAA. In the three and a half years that I have been a part of this organization I have never gone to cooking club. Boy, have I been missing out! There was soooo much food and it was all so good. I'm going to have to frequent this club more, I think.

On another note, I talked to Benj last night. He said that his interview at SLU was really laid back and he felt good about it. I'm glad he is through the first one. I think that Kirksville is next on the list. He really likes the program, doctors, and residents here, so he's crossing his fingers about the spot here. We'll see...

Happy Birthday Mom!

It's my Mom's birthday today, so Happy Birthday! I hope you have a wonderful day! My parents came up to visit us this past weekend and we had such a great time. They always spoil us when they are here--taking us out to eat, buying us groceries, taking care of our cars, fixing all of our broken things--can't get much better than that!

I talked to Benj last night. SLU wined and dined all of the students that are interviewing today. They got to go out to a really nice restaurant on The Hill (the Italian district in St. Louis). He said that the food was really good and the residents were nice and seemed happy, which is always a good sign. I am looking forward to hearing how his actual interview goes today, though. He'll have to take off straight from the hospital there and head to Omaha. He has two more weeks of rotations up there and then he can finally be in Kirksville for awhile. The weeks go by fast, but it's been hard to have Ben gone on so many out-rotations this year.

Thanks for the comments, girls! It's fun to see that someone is reading this! Tara, you asked about my preparations for running this race. Well, I think that I started running (really slowly and very short distances) sometime early last summer. As I said in my last post, I swore that I would never run...I would do anything to lose weight, except run. But, I soon found out that running was the most effecient way for me to burn calories and so I gave it a try. In the spring of this year, when it started getting nice out I got more serious about picking up some distance. Instead of going to the gym everyday, I was able to run outside, which is a lot more fun. I did my first race, a 10K, in April at the Osteopathic Fun Run. Of course, I didn't come anywhere close to winning, but I really did enjoy it. Over the summer I ran between 6 and 7.5 miles each day, which is maybe a little excessive for regular exercise, but that's what I did. I just decided to do this half marathon maybe a month ago or a little less. So, in preparation I am running 4-7 miles five days a week and then doing one long run of 10-12 miles once a week and taking a day off to rest. So, I guess that I have been working up to this race kind of slowly over the past year and a half. Since winter is on it's way, I'll have to head back to the gym and cut back on my running, but I am glad that I am getting the opportunity to run this race, while I am still in shape for it. Anyway, that is probably way more than you really wanted to know, but there you go!

Once Upon a Time...

Well, it seems like everyone has a blog these days, so I decided to join in the fun. I'll try to keep everyone updated on the stories of our little family.

As an introduction...
Ben is a forth year medical student, doing his clinical rotations in Kirksville. He is actually in the midst of interviews for a residency in anesthesia. Tomorrow is his first one at SLU. I'll have to let you all know how that goes for him. School keeps him really busy, but when he has time he likes to hunt, fish, camp, and play video games. As for me, well, I work at Truman State University as a chemical laboratory manager. I am also taking a biology class this semester and staying really busy. Currently, I am training to run my first half-marathon in a couple of weeks! This is really exciting for me because it wasn't that long ago that I swore that I would never run, but here I am 80 pounds lighter and a lot happier!

Anyway, here's to my first blog entry! Hope you all enjoy!