Mom on the Run--Woman of Steele

One of my favorite races of the year is the Fast Feet for Families 5K race in my hometown of Janesville.  I love this race so much!  I have participated in this race for the past 2 years.  I love it so much that this year I donated a Jamberry basket filled with wraps and hand care for the raffle prizes!  This race is for such a good cause, the foster care program in Janesville, that I just had to be more involved this year.  Not only because it could potentially bring me more business, but because of this worthy cause.  Kids deserve to have a  loving family environment to grow up in.   The race was Saturday, July 25, 2015.  I got my family up after I had gotten ready so that we could drive the few miles to the race location.  We arrived early so that I could get my packet and so we could enter our names in the raffle baskets.  The kids had a blast putting the tickets in all the different baskets!  I’m so thankful that I can...

So after we returned from vacation it was time to get ready for the 4th of July!  I love this time of year with all the family get-togethers and fun activities to do with the kids.  That’s why I love being a teacher so much!  I get to spend the best time of year with my kiddos, going out and being a part of fun family activities!   I got back into my usual routine of running at 4:30 am to get it done so I could enjoy my kids to the fullest.  I started training for my half marathon in August using a Hal Higdon’s intermediate half marathon training plan.  I like having a plan because it gives me an idea of what I should be doing, but I don’t always follow it perfectly.  Anyway, our town has an annual 4th of July 1 mile and 10K race.  I ran the 10K last year for the first time and figured I might as well run it again.  I was going to be running that morning anyway so I might as well run in a race and get some training out of it!   ...

This summer we made the decision to travel to Pennsylvania for our summer vacation. My husband, Jason (Jay), grew up in PA and has not been back to the area for about 28 years!! It was about time we made the trip!!! DAY #1: Saturday: Pennsylvania is about 10 hours from where we live in Wisconsin so we decided to leave very early in the morning Saturday. That way the kids would be able to sleep for a good portion of the drive and we could get further before all the "Are we there yet's?" began. We ended up making it to Ohio for breakfast. We stopped at this really cute donut shop called Mama C's Donuts and Coffee. The kids picked out donuts, of course, while I chose to have a caramel nut muffin warmed up.  Jay and my MIL, Marge had donut-type pastries as well.  The coffee was delicious and I definitely needed it after being up at the crack of dawn!  You would think that I would be used to it by now, but that couple hours difference and not going to sleep early en...

Back in November or December of last year I had the crazy idea that maybe I would like to run a full marathon.  I had run 3 half marathons that year and my yearly mileage was over 1500, so I guess in the back of my head, I figured, Hey, I might as well try it!  Plus I have this crazy dream of wanting to run the Boston Marathon at some point in my life.  Therefore, I really should try my legs at a full marathon.  So, with that being said, I decided to sign up for the Madison Marathon.  What is really cool about the Madison Marathon is that they have what is called the Conquer the Capital Challenge.  They have 2 levels.  Running the Twilight 10K Saturday night (I ran this last year)and running the Half Marathon Sunday morning for the 19.3 challenge; OR running those 2 races plus the full Madison Marathon in November for the 45.5 challenge.  I loved running the Twilight 10K last year, so I knew I was going to run that one anyway, so I decided to take...