The Collings Family

A little bug named "strep" visited our house this week. I've never seen Liza so sick. She woke up at 9:00 PM and was literally up the entire night. I finally got her to lay down with me at 4:30 AM. She's been a zombie for the last two days. This explains why Dave was so sick on Sunday. Please Mr. Strep, don't invade my system. The marathon is THIS Saturday. Marathons and strep just don't mix well. I've washed my hands raw and taken about as much vitamin C as my little system can handle. Speaking of marathons...three doctors and 100 hours of icing later, it looks like my leg/ankle just might hold out for me. I really need to get across that finish line. I put it on my bucket list when I was 19 and it is high time I cross it off!

Poor guy spent Father's Day on the couch...sick as a dog...er, I mean sick with a dog:) and he says he wants to get rid of her...

Dave and I have been shouting, jumping, screaming, singing, hoping and dreaming about him finding a job closer to home for the last 5 years. Yesterday our dream came true: Welcome home Dave. We'll try to keep the noise level down :)

one of my closest friends lost her sister, soul mate & dearest friend last week. I've held off on posting about the subject because I am not sure what or how to express my feelings (writing about silly things is so much easier!) However, I don't want to ever forget the emotions and experiences my friends have shared over the past 12 days (or 2 months) My friend Becky had been trying to get out to NYC to visit her sister for the last 6 months or so. On a whim, she and our other friend Suzanne flew out at the end of April. The first day she was there her sister starting feeling sick. When it didn't get better, they sent her off to the hospital to get it checked out. Becky got a call from her in the middle of the night saying, "come quick, I have cancer." Thus it began. There are many details from then until now, but it in the end, 32 days later, it took her life. 2 years her senior, she was Becky's closest friend. Every story Becky ever shared about her life...

I just read my last post and had to laugh. So much has happened since then and while I am sad that my darn foot won't run for me, there are so many others things in this world more important. I am just grateful to be healthy and surrounded by people that I love deeply and that love me back.

This year marks my second attempt training for a marathon. Last year I was 16 weeks into training, on my 17 mile training run when my IT band flared up. I was out from May 14 until sometime in October. This last season I have been (in my husband's words) "over the top" careful. I started training in January and have religiously stuck to my schedule. I rolled with this beast after every run: ...and took a 10 minute ice bath after every run over 10 miles. A couple of weeks ago I started feeling loss of strength in my ankles. Come to find out, I have PTT : posterior tibial tendonitis . Chistopher McDougall is up in the night - we were NOT born to run! No matter what you do - barefoot running, extensive stretching, swimming, biking, weights, perfect scheduled training, icing , rolling with a stinking PVC pipe you can still get injured. No matter what they say, running is just not good for the body! so why then is it SO addicting:)