August

I am an admitted Olypifile. I love them! Can't get enough. I have been staying up late way too many nights in a row to watch. This year has been the Olympics of women for me. So many amazing stories of incredible feats by women from around the world! Age in elite athletic competition is being redefined before our eyes. I wonder if men can continue to compete at an elite level in their 30's and even 40's or if it is just women? Wouldn't it be nice if there was finally something physical women get to do that men can't? Well, besides having babies and the incredible feat of cleaning up your child's bodily fluids without pausing a beat.

I admit I got choked up when I watched Constantina Tomescu win the marathon. She ran such a gutsy race. She wasn't even expected to medal but saw a chance, took a huge risk and ended up winning a gold medal. I thought she was going to fall over every step past mile 20. Obviously that wasn't the case as she ran several victory laps when the race was over. The woman is 38 years old and has a teenage son! How incredible is that?

So many other women in these Olympics have inspired me. The look on Shalane Flanagan's face when she finally realized that she finished 3rd in the 10,000 was amazing. 4 days earlier she had food poisoning so badly she couldn't get out of bed. She couldn't even jog until the day before the race!

Flanagan was in 10th place half way through the race and just kept passing runners. She set a new American record and a personal best. She said, " I just found my happy place and thought of my favorite run at home: 'What am I holding it back for? There's nothing to hold it back for, forever. I'm just going to let it go.' "

So cool! And inspiring. An interesting note, Shalane Flanagan's mom is a former world record holder in the marathon from before women were allowed to run more then 1500m in the Olympics.

 Sophie and Grace got big girl bikes!

 These oompa loompas crack me up!

Emilee and Ben came to visit for Em's Bday! We camped at this nasty campground by Carolina Beach. It was actually a trailer park and was pretty gross. But the beach was a blast!

The boys spent all their time digging in the sand.

Cold Hearted Snake

What do a stick, a piece of trash, a bunch of leaves, a tree root, a piece of tire all have in common? At 6 o'clock in the morning while running they all look like a copperhead snake just waiting to sink it's fangs into my juicy, mosquito bitten leg. This is the land of snakes and bugs and it makes me so uncomfortable to not know anything about the local deadly animals. My running companions tell me that copperheads have a triangle shaped head. Other wise they look similar to the other 290 kinds of snakes that live in North Carolina. I don't think I will be pausing to look closely at anything that can kill me, if not by venom, then by fear. I am working really hard to keep my fear of snakes rational so I can keep enjoying running. My favorite trail was snake-free until just a little while ago. My friend was running there alone and saw a small copperhead. She is not paranoid like me and stopped to take a good look. I guess they are not aggressive snakes unless you scare them, like if you were running and just happened upon one. The really yucky thing, copperheads live in nests all cozied up together!!!!! So if you see one, you can bet his lovely family is close at hand. I am freaking myself out now, so I am going to stop. Just for the record, I saw the hugest, biggest, ugliest spider I have ever seen (besides a tarantula) this morning ON MY FRONT DOOR.