Goodbye is never easy

Many of you know about our dog Buddy's struggle with kidney failure in the last few months.  At the beginning of July, our vet told us that he was far along in the process and that we only had 3-4 months with him and when he started to get bad, it would be fast.  We cherished our days with him, questioning if he was our miracle dog who would live months and months with the disease.  He lived for us, for love, for food, for walks.

But maybe 10 days ago, that changed.  He stopped eating more than a bite of food here and there.  Although he wagged and wagged  at the site of his leash and we obliged his wishes, our walks were slow, and short.  But they brought him happiness.

By this past weekend, he stopped eating and drinking altogether.  Our big fat monster was nothing but skin and bones.  He still lived for us, and for our love, but we could tell that was the extent of what he wanted in life.

All we kept questioning was how would we ever say goodbye.  Buddy was our monkey.  He had 7 homes in his first year of life before finding Tom.  His start with Tom was rough, but within a few weeks, his world revolved around Tom, and for those of you that know Tom, his world revolved around Buddy.  I was the first person Buddy met that he trusted from the start.  We were his world and he was ours.

Each night we'd say a silent prayer that he would say goodbye on his terms so that the decision wouldn't be ours.  But he fought.  With no food and no water in his system, he refused to give up.  That's our boy.

We stopped by the vet on Monday and she told us that we should probably not let him suffer - and it was obvious he was - not eating, kidney toxins running through his body.  We had talked about him not eating and drinking and she encouraged us to have one last day with him and bring him in on Tuesday.  We braced ourselves... again, how could we chose to end his life?

Buddy helped us make that decision on Monday night.  The poor guy had a horrible night, throwing up every 20-30 minutes - he had nothing in his system so where was this coming from?  He looked at us all night with eyes asking us to help him.  We knew the time was right.

So yesterday morning we did the hardest thing we've ever done... we helped him get to the place he needed to go.   It was hard... the hardest thing I've ever done.  But we knew that it was the right thing.

I know that he's watching over us and always will. I know that he's running around with the likes of Cider, Bailey, Sammy and all of the other amazing dogs that have gone before him.  And I know that we'll meet again.  He's not struggling.  He gave it his best fight and we love him for that.  He touched our lives in so many ways and taught us so many lessons - be it about patience, love, forgiveness, and pure happiness with the simplest things in life.

And while our house may be a little emptier, our hearts are so incredibly filled with love and memories that blessed us with for 11+ years.  Rest in peace doodie pants...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REV3 Anderson

I love meeting someone online and totally clicking in person.  It happened with my hubby.  It's happened with just about all of my friends from the blogging world (I honestly can't say that I've met anyone that I didn't like.  Okay.  Maybe one or two. hehe)  This weekend I got to meet a whole slew of wonderful people.  And hang out with my team.  And race as part a relay.  Sounds like a trifecta perfect weekend, right?

Friday afternoon, Alisa flew in from Portland.  I was so stinking excited to meet her as we've been blogging/email/team friends for a few years now.  From what I knew of her, I'd love her.  And I was right!  She is awesome.  Anyway, she flew in Friday and we spent the whole day/night gabbing.  We hit up  my favorite Mexican joint for dinner and then crashed hard around 9:30 at night. 

Saturday we were kind of lazy in the morning, but hit the road for Anderson around 9am.  I promised Alisa that we'd stop for some caffeine and I introduced her to our Quick Trip Gas Station... mmm... full coffee bar and doughnut bunches. :)  She was either going to love me for introducing her to all this yumminess, or absolutely hate me for the crap that I was going to make her eat!!!  The drive was quick - straight up 85 and before we knew it we were at the expo. 

And it was freezing.  Like 15 degrees cooler than it was when we left Atlanta.  Yikes.

I was signed up to race the half, was planning on switching to the olympic, and then Alisa talked to her relay team and they realized that with some switching around of teammates, there was an opening for the bike portion of their half relay.  I jumped on it (because the whole tri thing hasn't been doing it for me lately).  I'd never done a relay and it would be with my teammates so that was awesome. 

At the expo, I got to meet Chloe, Robin, Alex, and Tim.  Kati, Carole, Laura, Charlie and the REV3 family was there too so it's super fun going to a race and knowing a ton of people.  We got a quick team picture and then got checked in. 

 

We took a quick trip over to T1 and the swim start so that Alisa could get a practice swim and I could get my bike checked in. 

Then it was on to introducing Alisa to the wonderfulness that is Chick-fil-a. :)  I told you, she's either going to love me or hate me.  I think she loved me! :)

That afternoon and evening was pretty low key.  We laid around and watched Too Cute on the animal planet (have you see this?  Holy heck it's awesome).  We went to Target for some homemade arm warmers, we went to dinner (where we got to see Andy and Jill too), we found out that our hotel had awesome cookies in the lobby for us.  It was great, but we were super tired and ready to crash early.

Sunday morning we woke up and both of us were exhausted.  Luckily we each had only one leg to race. :)

Alisa did AMAZING in the swim.  She's awesome like that.  My leg, the 56 mile bike was good.  I took it slow, as I haven't been doing a lot of fast training.  And I won't lie, it was hilly.  For some reason my IT band was screaming at me throughout the ride which is weird because I haven't had much of that lately.  The whole time, it was kind of odd, knowing that I was only biking.  I wasn't soaking wet on my bike when I started (God bless all the people that were because it was freezing) and I knew that I didn't have to get off and run.  And that was good.  I wasn't feeling amazing.  I got to T2 and Alex was waiting for me to get the time chip and take off.  I politely informed him that I hadn't peed on my bike so the chip was clean for him, which he, and all of the spectators got quiet a kick out of.  And with that, my race was done.  I hit the potties, got changed, put my bike away and Alisa and I beelined it for the postrace grub.  We had some time to kill before Alex would be in.

Right about 5:50 race time, Alex popped around the corner.  Alisa and I were excited to run in with him as a team, but he took off.  Our finish picture is going to be classic.  He's ahead of us, she and I are looking at each other like "what the heck" and my tri top was riding up so I pulled it down.  Lovely.  The finisher swag was, as always, amazing! :)

Overall, it was an amazing weekend.  REV3 put on another amazing race... it'll be on my calendar for next year for sure.  I loved meeting new teammates, and seeing those that I already knew.  I loved all of the laughs.  But like all good things, it had to come to an end too quickly. :(

So one last thing... can you keep this little guy in your thoughts?  Things have been a bit rough lately and our little guy is showing his age quickly. :( 

 

What's this? A race report???

Shocking, I know. Pick your jaws off the ground because Irondiva is doing a few small races here and there this year.  I haven't totally thrown in the towel to my competitive bone!!!  :)

But I wasn't so much competitive this race as I was happy with how it went!

Here's the story...

So  few weeks ago, Tom and I decided that we were going to look for a fall half marathon.  I love fall half marathons.  There's just something about them that make me smile.  We run a mid-distance run of 10-14 every weekend so it's not really a huge change from a normal weekend, but I love the crisp weather, everyone nervously chatting at the start, the bling at the end, etc.  We found the Allstate 13.1 Atlanta and decided to sign up.  Karen later told me that she had run it last year and really liked it.  That's the funny thing about Atlanta races... I know nothing about any of them, but can always find someone who has done it to get the inside scoop.  I figured it would be a fairly good size race based on the fact that they have them all over the US.  Perfect...

A week before the race, Karen was doing a giveaway on her blog for a free entry so I told Matt to enter, knowing that he's training for a marathon.  It fit in his schedule perfectly and as luck would have it, he won the entry!!!  So yay... I would have Karen and Matt there as well.  See... I already love racing in Atlanta!

Matt and I decided to run the race together since I've been slow and he's tapering for his big race, giving each other an out at any point if the other was going too fast (ha... that wouldn't have been me) or too slow.  I knew Tom would be a speed demon and I couldn't keep up with him.  I was just hoping to see Karen at the start and now am kicking myself for not setting up a meeting point with her because I never saw her. 

Sunday morning was beautiful - the perfect crisp day I had hoped for.  Tom and I were cozy in bed and I'm not going to lie... it was a little hard getting up at 5:30 to go run (especially since Tom stayed up to watch the Buckeyes put it to Nebraska the night before).  But I love this saying and it's what gets us going...

Matt and I lined up around the 2:00 mark.  I've been running fairly slow these days with the hills and whatnot.  I told Matt that I would like to be around 2:05.  He asked if I was good at pacing (ha... no) and asked if I was using a Garmin (again... nope... not my style).  He was so he could keep us on track.  We started out right on a 9:30 pace.  The first 3 or so miles were up and down, a little crowded, a little dark.  I couldn't really get into my groove.  But by mile 6, I was feeling great and we were consistently running right on pace.  All of a sudden I looked an we were at mile 9.  WHAT? :)  That's the awesome part about running with someone.  We talked about some great stuff - family, our values, reality tv (are you guys addicted to Breaking Amish like we both are???), racing, training, the future.  It was so great and made the miles just fly.  Before long, we were at mile 12, Tom had looped back to run to the finish with us.  Matt was feeling awesome and although I know he could have gone ahead, I think he played it smart with a marathon in two weeks (which he's going to rock... go wish him well here!)

Remember how I had hoped to run a 2:05, although I suck at pacing and wasn't wearing a Garmin?  We ended up crossing at like 2:05:34! :)  I would say that was perfect pacing!  Not close to a PR for me, and I loved it.  It was a fun race, I got to spend time getting to know Matt more, and I felt good the whole time.  And it was a GPR... a Georgia PR. :)

The race itself was great - amazing support, great course, music throughout the course, organized aid stations, a great finish line and pretty awesome bling!

If there's an Allstate 13.1 near you (LA, Dallas, Boston, Chicago, Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, and New York), I'd sign up.  You won't be disappointed!  But run it with a friend.  That'll make it even better!

This coming weekend, I'm racing again (gasp) at REV3 Anderson.  I can't wait to see my teammates and race another amazing Rev race!!!

Some of the best laid plans

Aren't really planned! :)

It's a rainy day here in Atlanta... we don't have too many of them and I'm loving it.  We slept with the windows open last night and fell asleep to the sound of the raindrops falling.  Today I'm sitting in my jammies, with my hubby behind me at his desk because he has the freedom of being able to work from home.  I have 20 pounds of apples in the kitchen waiting for me to make applesauce.   A totally unplanned amazing Monday.  I love when weeks start off like that.

I've totally dropped my training plan.  I've just been doing what I want and I'll be honest, I'm happy.  Really, really happy.  And shockingly enough I had a pretty amazing September training wise.  I ended up running nearly 115 miles throughout the month.  They were slow, hilly miles, spent talking about the future with my favorite running partner.  If given the chance to follow a plan of have a month like that, I think I'd choose that every.single.time.  It just fits me best!

Yesterday we rode at the Gaps.  Sunday I'm running a half marathon (with Matt... yay... I get to see he and Jenn TWICE this week!).  In two weeks I'm racing at Rev3 South Carolina (and get to meet the fabulous Alisa!).  At the end of the month, the Diet Coke Mafia is representing at the Atlanta Marathon.  I'm having a ball right now!

Life is constantly changing for us and I love that.  I've always been such a planner and I'll have to say, I'm kind of liking flying by the seat of my pants.