Super Bowl HRCA 5K

Scott and I live in Highlands Ranch which is a huge suburbia filled with cal de sac’s just south of Denver…our Highlands Ranch Community Association puts on a run series..for fun, we did their Super Bowl Sunday 5K.  Scott now has some tacky (ok, should appreciate it) award trophy with a big shiny gold football on it.   Fun day. 

http://www.myentryfee.com/results/Results.aspx

Supportive Folks All Around

As I still struggle and continue to work towards recovering from the eating disorder, it is always somehow surprising, yet really nice to get support.  Got one of those great emails from a good friend that was one of my riding buddies when I lived back in the DC/Northern Virginia area; haven’t spoken to in months.  But true and good friends are always there.  Some of the email is posted below.   Reminds me how many people have gone out of their way to help me..I welcome the chance to help others (and return the favor)

 

Hey –

Thanks for writing back and sharing some of the news. Sounds like you have your hands full.

Please let us know when you come East. We were hoping to catch you on our Colorado trip but knew it was going to be tough. We had a darn good time climbing the passes but didn’t like all the miles in between — there are flat highways with trucks here in Va!

You take care of the demons. Put them in a box … cupcakes come in nice boxes… You have been very brave in opening up, sharing your experiences and facing them head on these past few years. You’ve earned it.

Eat smart, train smart, heckle folks like “super girl” from a few years ago, be nice to hubby, tell the mirror “I look goooood,” repeat…

 

Finally! Found software sales role-back in the workforce..

Has been a long six months since being laid off from Oracle-but I always believe that while a certain time period may be difficult, that they just can’t last forever.   I look forward in my mind to “six months from now” this will all be different and in the past.  So, with that said, feel very fortunate to have started in a new software sales role for a company whose application is specific to PSAPS (public safety answering points..which basically is your 911 emergency call centers and first responders).  Great people with positive outlooks-good fit for me so far!

http://www.nineoneone.com/index.shtml

Monday, December 22nd 2009-Recovery Process

Recovery from an eating disorder is often best described as a process; unfortunately, it  is not a single event that brings full recovery. Sometimes, an eating disorder is described as a lifetime illness that one can “manage” (like diabetes) but not something that will go away entirely.  This recognition and acceptance of the process of recovery is important to remain in recovery. I am learning that it is foolish for me to sweep aside the key components of a recovery plan.   So, I am back to getting some help and in the process, am learning more about what it takes to really recover.

http://eatingdisorders.md/

Oh,that RAAM event in June that I should have blogged about?

 

Lots of things happened in June.  RAAM’s RAW attempt. (oof. that hurt)  Crew was great though. Great friends, Donna and Brett Weiser, and John Kinnicutt, flew from the east coast to Denver to pick up “the van”, which is quite a beast, but a godsend donated from Colorado Car Rentals (one of sponsors) to use for the whole race…and the whole summer!  They drove all the way out to Oceanside, CA with all my gear, while I took the easy way and flew out a couple days after them.  Race starts.  Lets just say “ouch” to that brutal desert heat.  Lesson learned.  Deep freeze all body parts to stay cool while riding. However, with all ultra racing it is a learning experience of what works. And what doesn’t.  So with the race ending before it should have, we figured that we had a day or two to spend in Taos before making the drive back to Denver for Donna, Brett and John to catch flights..Scott joined us in Taos to take the “jenn hand off” from my doting crew and we had some fish tacos. (hey, donna…scott and I joke about that whenever we are somewhere that has fish tacos:) 

Sunday, September 28th-this year in contrast to last

I recognize that I haven’t commented as of late on the real main purpose of this webpage which was to raise awareness and perhaps a small bit of understanding with those folks who have or have struggled ED. 

 If this doesn’t apply to you in the least, you may just want to blow thru this particular blog and skip onto the next (though think about it..i imagine that you have a friend of a friend, relative, coworker, teammate… that you may know who could be having a tough time;remember that only people very close to me ever knew about my constant struggle)

As Scott is off in Moab for the past couple of days and with the wedding celebration being over,  I finally have had a chance to stop always moving and “doing and just be”.  Thinking about where I was in recovery a year ago in contrast to where I am now is amazing.  

 So many things that were scary and by scary, I don’t only mean “scary” foods (yes, watch out for that extra piece of  X food as it may somehow turn you overnite into small hippo…you know, ridiculous stuff like that, but is very real to someone with ED), but also scary or uncomfortable feelings that arise from daily interpersonal relationships.  Happily, I now am able to handle many more of those “scary” things that a year ago, even though I was also in recovery. 

So as I have had a little bit of time to sit down the past couple of days, I have to smile to myself that I am having a really great life now.  No, I am not “cured”, but practice makes things much easier.   Heck, a silly comparison, but it is like my present mission to enjoy mtn biking instead of running into every rock on the trail.   After the past several weeks of nothing but mtn biking (OCD isn’t always a bad thing, right?) it is getting a lot easier. So, getting thru something tough may just be not giving up and accepting that it doesn’t have to be perfect.  You just have to keep trying.

And I ate cake at my wedding:)

Have got to update this thing! Here goes!

Ok, a ton has happened in the past four months-so this will be a work in progress to attempt to get back up to speed!  At the exact present time (3:57 am), I am watching scott’s gps beacon that he is toting go from check point to check point in the 2008 Moab expedition AR (adventure racing)…it is one of the big races in AR and they have been going straight through since noon on thursday (it is now 4am Saturday morning)…I am stressed wife and I am not even racing! (yes, will get you up to speed on the wife thing-we got married!)

Here is link to the gps beacon for the teams-big cash at stake (go BPN!)

http://checkpointtracker.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=app.gpsTracking&eventID=147

 

 

So back to the married part..told you a ton has happened since April time frame-August 30th in Winterpark was lifechanging day (in awesome way) for both Scott and myself…

  

  There are tons of photos from the day at our photographer’s professional webpage (tom cooper of lightbox images…see link below, but one that isn’t in the online album is this one, that I love of the flower girls)

http://www.lightboximages.digitaleventsonline.com/gallery/?cat=32267

Thanks tom for great shots! ps…how was the wine ride last weekend?  And I am not missing road bike yet because am on mission to get better at mtn biking so I can actually survive October 11 and 12th 24 hours of Moab http://www.grannygear.com/Races/Moab/index.shtml 

( getting married doesn’t mean that I have gotten any brighter, apparently!)

 

Will continue the update of past couple of months in my following posts…must get some shut eye before leading a mtn bike ride route that scott kindly showed me this past Sunday (good god, he is fast..I was suffering!  Will try again without mr. swaney and at a non warp speed!)

One more day…

John again…

We had a fairly uneventful drive from Denver to Oceanside — if you think that rain, snow (in June) and lots of construction is uneventful. But we all got here, got the van race ready, bought food for the trip, got Jenn checked in, had her official photographs taken and passed our vehicle and bike inspections. All that remains now is for Jenn to bike 1000 miles!!!

We finished up with our inspections about 11AM, leaving us lots of time to relax and have some fun. Jenn went to the store for some last minute supplies while Donna, Brett and I went to the beach for a few hours. Amazingly, none of us got sunburns.

At 5 o’clock we all met up again for dinner — it was great. We all order some sort of seafood (afterall, we’re at the beach!), followed by a round of outrageously good deserts (carbo loading???).

The plan for tomorrow is to sleep in as long as possible, grab some breakfast, meet up and head over to the start area around 11AM.

I’ll try to update the blog page but it could be difficult, I will try to keep up with the email updates though.

You should also follow the race at www.raceacrossamerica.org.

Wish us all luck!

Updating blog!

Holy moly, I am behind with my blog-will work to update, but can honestly say that it has been quite the busy past month-getting things together for race, end of fiscal year at office, and wedding planning. Thanks to friends, crew, and Scott for helping me to stay afloat!!

In town-Kathy and Frank-zoo and hiking

Flew back from my work trip on Saturday morning,April 26th, and right back into winter. Arriving back at DIA, it was a direct contrast in weather from what I had just left five hours ago-70 and sunny to 30’s and cold! Grabbed bag, hit the road, and went directly to the Denver Zoo to meet up with Scott and his mom and her hubby, who were in town and staying at our place for the weekend. Couldn’t believe that we were walking around the zoo and it was blowing snow sideways one minute and then sunny the next. The cold did not seem to affect the zoo critters though, just the people silly enough to be walking around looking at them:) Next day, Scott and I rode in gym in the AM, then rode up to Morrison/Evergreen area to the Lair o’ the Bear to do some hiking with Kathy and Frank-not snowing today. Much better.

Mom Swaney gets credit for the fun candid shots that we didn’t know she was taking:) And the day after they flew back to Indiana, I got to have some really nice flowers on my office desk that made coworkers wish they had Mom Swaney  as mom in law;)