Our first 5 k race!

On Saturday, my family (except little Eva) ran a 5 k Saint Patty's day race at Challenger Ridge Vineyards in Concrete. The boys showed up jazzed and ready to have fun, but I was sick to my stomach with nervousness and anxiety, since I have never ran a 5 k race before. I used to compete at 100 meter sprints, but that was almost 25 years ago. That's a quarter of a decade! And this race was 3.1 miles of running with some serious, professional-looking runners, decked out in expensive running gear. Us Sahlin's showed up in hillbilly hand knit hats and fleeces.

We are still laughing... The race hasn't started yet.

Ever so helpful, Steve lets me stretch my nervous legs on his back.

My goal for this race was to finish it, and not to walk, but run, if humanly possible. The plan was to start nice and easy, so we wouldn't burn out, with Kai and Lukas by my side. However, many of the runners shot out the starting line like torpedos (including my husband Steve), and I got confused on how fast I should run in this herd. It doesn't help that I am terribly competitive. I knew from the start that I was in trouble, because I hated seeing people in front of me, and I loathed hearing people behind me. As I tried to match my steps to my breathing, the only rhythm I could discern in my head was the thought of “shit, shit, shit”. After three quarters of a mile, instead of “shit, shit, shit” being the only thought in my head, it was now joined by “This race was such a bad idea”.

After a mile, a girl about 12 years old passed us. I felt Kai bristling a few steps ahead of me. He was like a race horse, not wanting to be beaten by a –gasp– girl. So I told him to go ahead and take off, and he did. He left me, as usual, in the proverbial dust.

Just before the turnaround point of 1.5 mile, I managed to relax. I started smiling and waving at the people who already turned around, or at people who I passed. It was a fascinating character study. Some people returned my smiles and clearly were having fun, while some wouldn't even react to me, or blatantly ignored me. Are we having fun yet?

After about two miles, Lukas asked if he could pull ahead. I let him. It was wonderful to watch him blast ahead of me and pass several adults. The last three quarters of a mile were very hard! All I wanted to do was walk, but I didn't allow myself to do it. I really wanted to finish this race strong, and I managed to sprint the last 100 yards, to the cheering and applause of my boys.

And here is the miracle of it: I finished in 27 minutes, which is a pretty good time for a beginner. Steve finished in 22 minutes, Kai in 24, and Lukas in 26.

Steve finishes.

Kai finishes next.

Way to kick a heart aneurysm's ass, Lukas!

And here Mama hobbles in.

We couldn't have done this without our dear friend Andrea and her daughter Vija (Eva's best friend).  Andrea took care of Eva and waited with the two little girls at the finish line, waving cheerleading pompoms and taking pictures. We look happy, albeit tired, yes?

If Lukas and I look like we want to throw up, it's probably because we wanted to throw up.

My little cheerleader!

Are we proud?  Hell yes!  Are my knees hurting?  Oh yeah.  Will we do it again?  You bet!

After our run, we went for a walk with Andrea and Vija, just to cool down, and just to spend a little bit more time with our precious friends.

Happenings

A couple of years ago, I bicycled from my house in Marblemount on the West side of the Cascade Mountains to the town of Winthrop, which is 91 miles away on the other side of the mountains. This involved my dinky old mountain bike, an elevation gain of 6,908 feet, and 8.5 hours in the saddle. In other words, I blissfully biked all day, all by myself, up two mountain passes, and I never once felt like giving up.

So why is it so hard for me to RUN three miles? Our family has been training for a 5km run, and the most I've ever ran (this weekend) is four miles, every single one of which kicked my butt. And I had to take breaks walking on the last mile.

Put me on a bike, and I can easily do 100 miles. Put me on my own two feet, and I huff and puff like a chain smoker. It's incredibly frustrating, especially when I run with my 8 and 10 year old sons, who barely change their breathing patterns or break a sweat while jogging next to me, while I drip and groan and moan. Is this going to get any easier, or what? I mean it, people - suggestions are highly welcome here.

I am blown away by how many people read my blog (and I know there must be some runners out there who read it). I can view the statistics of my blog writing endeavor, and I can tell how many pages are read every day. I have only started blogging in November, but there have already been three thousand page views (not including mine). This feels so very lovely, because I feel like I am writing to an audience – to you! My words don't get lost in outer space somewhere, but they land – with you! Wow! I love it when people leave comments on the blog, although most people leave comments on Facebook, after I post my new entry there. So all I'm saying, feel free to post here, in this space, although I know it's kind of annoying to sign up for the whole google thing. Just know it makes my day to read your comments, thoughts and ideas, and it's also really great for my Ego! And – runners – please tell me what I should do to hang in there with my pathetic running efforts, okay?

We've been spending our days home schooling, practicing fiddle, starting more veggies seeds, taking enchanted walks through the woods to the river, baking bread, and making good food. I can't eat the bread, what with my elimination diet and all, but the rest of the family enjoys it.

I feel great, by the way! No sugar, no dairy, no gluten, no alcohol – and no cramps this month! I usually have to swallow ibuprofin to get through my moon time, but this month, I am breezing through it. I have lots of energy as well. That must have to do with my eating, don't you think? I am really trying hard to feel proud of myself for being so virtuous, but I still do feel deprived. Especially when my terrible dear family stuffs their faces with my home made bread, dripping with butter and honey, while I munch carrots with tahini instead. Or when Lukas inhales chocolate chips after our training run, with the smell wafting right under my nose. Sigh...

These are my brassica starts, poking their lovely heads out of the soil.

Thanks to our wonderful friend and neighbor, Kai is getting fiddle lessons.  He really, really wants to learn how to play fiddle, because, in his own words, "It makes my heart happy."

This is one of our typical meals.  Here you see salmon with garlic and dill, plus lots and lots of vegetables.

One of our projects this week involved fire, and lots of it. For months, I had been walking by the huge brush pile next to one of the living room windows, and I finally declared that I had enough of the mess. I am Southern German, after all, and it is deeply instilled in my genetic material that picture perfect farms do not entail big, ugly brush piles next to the house. So we spent an afternoon dragging logs and branches over to a roaring fire. We also burnt a lot of bamboo, since I had cut down lots of it the week before. You can imagine how wretched it looked after having been bent over by winter rains and snow. So my German sense of orderliness hacked a lot of it down. Have you ever heard the racket bamboo canes make when they burn? They sound like fireworks, with their popping and cracking. That's why they call it BAM-boo!

Check out the sound in this video.  The bamboo sounds like gun shots!  

I've been on a sock knitting kick lately. This way, my family ends up with plenty of wool socks, nice and warm for this temperamental spring weather. And they feel so heavenly comfortable on your feet. Another plus is the fact that when they get wet (since I have plenty of puddle splashing children), they still feel warm. When Lukas put on his first pair of wool socks, he looked at me in astonishment and exclaimed, “Wow, these socks feel like walking on water!” For the ones of us who have never walked on water, we can just assume he marveled at their softness and magic.

This is a hat I knit up in half an hour for Lukas.  Hurray for bulky yarn!

Training for a race

This week has been very full of wonderful things, including time in the cold, wet outdoors.
The whole family (except Eva) is training for a 5k race in April, so we go jogging several times a week.  So far, I have run 2 miles every other day, which is more than enough for me.  Sometimes, I run with Kai, sometimes with Lukas.  On the last few hundred yards, as I try not to hyperventilate, the boys will breeze by me in an elegant sprint.  Hmpf.  Here they are running, while Eva and I walk.  Pluto, our 13 year old dog, insists on running with them.

The boys joined us on the walk after they got their two miles run done, and we all looked at salmon guts that are splattered all over the beach, lending a rather robust aroma to the scenery.

It's not too hard to run in a place where you get to see beautiful things like this as you speed by.

This is our permanent camp in the woods, where the boys (including Steve) built several debris huts, where they spent nights in the summer and fall, doing macho stuff like covering themselves with leaves instead of sleeping bags.  Since I am mortally afraid of spiders and prefer camping in a safe tent with bug netting AND a sleeping bag, I don't partake in these excursions.

Spring is kind of thinking about showing up on some days, although the snow line here is reaaaalllly low.  I don't care about that, though - I have a wood stove and a greenhouse.  Here are my onions in the greenhouse and my garlic poking out in the garden.

I'm outside a lot, especially since I am forced out into the barn three times a day to put an ice pack on Gracie's leg.  Her injury seems to be getting better!

There is a lot of new learning going on in our house.  Kai taught himself to type in five days.  Steve watched Kai do his typing exercises on the computer and said morosely, "Kai types faster than me now."  He might be right!
And Eva is learning a lot, too, including riding a tricycle, which is a hard thing to do, considering having to coordinate pedaling and steering at once.  But she has her brothers to cheer her on, and to give her a ride on their backs every now and then, to show her how it's done.

And then, of course, there is time spent with good friends, in nature, with lots of laughter, hugs and sharing fruit and nuts by the river.