I did NOT run in the Mercedes Marathon last weekend. And yes, I’m just now writing about it, a week later. Just now getting to writing it is a large part of why I didn’t run. The ‘being late’ part, that is.

So where do I start…

Training, Training, Training

I had been training for the Mercedes Marathon for quite a few months with my running buddies, starting back in June or so and going on until the race month of February. And like everyone else, I’m incredibly busy as well with work, household, kids, activities, yada, yada…you get the picture. I’m also often distracted, so suffice it to say that I quite frequently walk into a room and forget what I went in there to do.

Yeah.

So…where was I?

Oh yes, so very busy and distracted, and it’s frequently hard for me to sometimes keep things straight like what to do, where to be, what needs to be done, did, etc.

Because I’m frugal, I sign up for races well in advance because I absolutely abhor paying ridiculous extra fees if I don’t have to. Ever since I started running in races and marathons, I make it a habit to sign up just as soon as they open up registration. Plus, I like getting the low numbers…it impresses people, making them think I’m an “elite runnner.” ha!!!!

Sitting and Getting – - All Of It Done

Anyway, one day I was sitting and registering for some upcoming races. They included my annual birthday celebration 8k race at Ross Bridge, the Vulcan Run (my celebratory first race ever!) and of course, my beloved Mercedes Marathon. So while I was on the Active.com site, I entered and paid for each race, and hit enter. I think? I thought I did. Apparently I DID hit enter for the other two races because I ran them. But when I went back in my mind (don’t laugh) to replay my actions, I remember being distracted with the upcoming Ruben Studdard Marathon and trying to see what my schedule was like. A few of my other runner friends were doing it so I wanted to think about doing it too.

And that, my friends, is where the trouble began.

As best as I can piece together, I think when I decided to “think” about running the Ruben Marathon, I clicked away from the Active.com sign-up for the Mercedes to go look at Ruben’s site and I never came back! uugh!! Now, fast-forward nine months later as I’m standing in the Boutwell auditorium trying to get my running swag pack. There I am, sweating, feeling the tears swell and about to dry heave because they can-not find my stuff!

The Organizer’s Solution?

I got lots of help from the race organizers desperately trying to find my sign-up information. Nothing came up. Nothing. Kenneth and I are on our iPhones trying to find the banking and payment information, and that danged confirmation email. More about that confirmation email in a minute.

Although the race organizers try to assure me that “this kind of thing often happens,” they just don’t understand that it doesn’t happen to ME. Never. And that’s because I always, always, ALWAYS sign up, early and cross my eyes and dot my t’s. Always.

After looking long and hard, and finding nothing, I decided right then and there that I was going to pass out. The organizers made a deal with me: sign up, again, find your proof of my (first) registration and they’ll reimburse me in full. Sounds good, right? The only problem with that was while I was standing there contemplating this irresistible idea, a lovely person comes across the loud speaker and gleefully announces that the “half and full marathons have been closed!! Sold out!!” Great. More heaving.

So, no race packet for me and no way to even sign up if I wanted to. The feeling I had then was completely…deflated. That’s the best description I have for it. Other words would include embarrassed, hurt, mad, angry, sad, insulted, tired, and disappointed, and on and on. I had trained for months for this race, and I wouldn’t get to do it.

The Lesson Learned

The lesson I learned through all of this was to stay focused on one thing at a time, no matter how busy I am, and follow it through to the end. Had I done that, I would have caught my error earlier, and not on race day, standing in the middle of the Boutwell with my mouth wide open. Horrific.

As for that confirmation email thingie, no, I didn’t check my email for it. Why, you ask? Well, just like everything else, when you sign up for something and then give them your email, you’re swarmed with MORE emails to buy this and that. So, I’ve grown an eye callus to emails that come with more sales pitches. And when I started getting more marathon emails (which I did because I’m on their newsletter mailing list), I didn’t open them and also felt pretty confident that one of them was my confirmation page. Nope.

Learn From Me – I’ll Allow It

I hope too that I can help someone else with my mistake, if nothing else but to show you what can happen when you’re distracted. Oh wait, that’s already happened. A friend texted me just today to “thank” me for screwing up because it reminded her to check her email for her race confirmation. Nice. Glad I could help.

A lot of folks have been very kind to me and have had encouraging words to say when I tell my embarrassing story. Maybe they giggled to themselves, but they’ve been kind to me in person, even with the “awww’s” and the sad face.

I don’t know if you’ve ever done something quite like this, but I’d love to hear about it. Maybe it will make me feel even better knowing that there are other people out there who are also distracted and don’t know it!

So What’s Next?

My next scheduled race is the Nashville Country Music Marathon in April. I still haven’t signed up, but I’m about to tonight and I’m going to make SURE that I

1.) hit the enter key
2.) check to make sure the enter key got hit
3.) check my confirmation email
4.) print my confirmation email
5.) staple my printed confirmation email into my calendar and plug the date into my iPhone.

There. This can never happen to me again. My nerves can’t take it!!

- – Thanks for listening.  :)

I have many, many fond memories of watching Soul Train on Saturdays, as I’m sure many children of the 70s do. That’s how and where I learned to do the Robot, line dancing and how to shake my boo-tay! Those were some fun, fun times. And when we got older, we would pretend to be Mr. Cornelius, probably one of the coolest, flyest Black men on television back then. The brother was baadd!! Everything he did and said was smoove!

I hope and pray that his family is consoled today and they’re able to piece things together in light of such a horrible event. I also pray that whatever troubled Mr. Cornelius to take his own life, that he has now found some peace in the midst of his own personal storm. Rest In Peace, Don. We love you!!!

I got on the phone to call Bluehost to talk with them once again to find out what’s happening. As of right now, Monday morning, a week later, there’s no more information available than there was a week ago. I’ve been placed on hold multiple times, told “we’re sorry” but they have no answers and pretty much have thrown up their hands for a solution. What’s the problem? Why I’m glad you asked!

Seems that the server that houses all of my blog domains (and thousands others) is having a glitch because some wonderful Bluehost customer somewhere has/is being abusive with their account. And, until Bluehost can determine and locate the source of this problem, they’ve decided to take down ALL of the accounts that are currently on that server. What?? Who does that!

Now while I am not and do not profess to know anything on the technical side of the World Wide Web, what I do know that this to me is NOT customer service. I mean, really, if you’re going to host thousands and thousands and thousands of customers, there should be some plan of action or workable solution in place so that this kind of thing doesn’t happen to the good guys. At least not to the good guys who behave and don’t do abusive things to their accounts.
So suffice it to say that Bluehose is NOT one of my fave sites or company’s right now. I don’t know what I’m going to do to remedy this and keep this from happening to me again, but I will do something. This is not the first time that this has happened. A few of my blogger friends have suggested to me before to spread out my blog hosts to other companies, just to avoid interruptions like this. Unfortunately, this is a bad time to say that I agree with them and heed their advice, but I do. Woe is me.

Which hosting companies do you use? How many blogs do you manage? Do you think spreading the hosting love should at least band-aid the problem, or “it is what it is?”

I don’t know what my other writer friends do during the day to take a “mental break,” but these types of mental stimulating games keep me alert and somewhat on my toes. Addictive? Absolutley!! But, then again, what isn’t, right?

First it was Facebook. Logging on daily, checking my status updates to see if anybody had responded, or “Liked” it. This was especially important if I had posted a funny status update, a funny duckface photo or something related to the kids or anything that I thought would get some type of comical response!

Then there was Twitter, of course, since everybody on Facebook was talking about Twitter! I did rather enjoy though the posts on those funny autocorrect jokes. There were lots of times when I lol’d.

Then, there’s always the emails and posts from my various running groups that come out pretty frequently. They’ll send updates on where we’re running and sometimes the group organizer will have a picture of a classic and fun-ny Photoshop fail at the bottom of the emails. I’m always laughing at those!!

Of course, I had to find a way to limit my newfound addictions. So, now I promise myself a little indulgence after an hour or two hours of solid work. That gives me something to look forward to without having it completely interrupt my day and render me completely non-productive. Not good. Especially for a freelance writer like myself who MUST work constantly to keep the dough rolling in!

Now, I just tell my friends on Facebook and Twitter to just be patient, and that I’m going to update or reply to their status updates at a certain time. I don’t want them to worry and wonder where I am. So, I think I’m pretty set now. We’ll see.

Oh, and I’ll be back in 10 minutes to see if you’ve replied to this post. What?? I didn’t say that I was COMPLETELY cured!!

1. Lose weight (isn’t that first on everyone’s list???)

2. Commit to posting to all 12 of my blogs everyday, no matter how long it takes.

3. Complete (finally!) my Bethany degree so that I can focus on getting another one from Troy University. I c.a.n.n.o.t. wait.

4. Slow down life while I focus on the more important things – - God, family, home, friends. And with that, my last but certainly not least one is…

5. To search, seek and spend MORE time with God.

You can check back with me at the end of 2012 to see if I’ve done these things, but I’m not going to hold myself to something unattainable. Like I said, these are goals that I’m going to work towards. So, if I don’t meet them, or if I fall short a little bit, I’m not going to spazz out about it. I’ll just pick up where I left off and keep it moving.

What are some of your goals for this New Year?

Here’s to you and your happiness for the next 365 days!!

The first night, I took some Tylenol sinus and that did nothing to help me feel better. As a matter of fact, it seemed to dry me out even more. Then I noticed that the more water I drank during the day, the better I felt. So yesterday afternoon, I drank a fair amount of water during the day, and my sinuses thanked me! I slept better last night and felt much, much better this morning.

Today is our last day here, but I can guarantee you that water will be my friend! I’ve already got my sports cup on ready to brave the long competition day, so no more drying out for me. I need to be on ready for the competition, right?? Riiigghhttttt!!!!!!

Thankfully for me my mom’s been really helpful since I had the twins – I don’t know how I would have done it without her. I love being able to not work and stay home with them but it’s been a tough road getting here and we’ve had to make some sacrifices along the way. I love my children but having twins is the most challenging thing I can ever imagine anyone doing, to be honest with you. Besides worrying about whether the dog is fed or if the Home SECURITY Systems Williamsburg system is set you have to worry about what to do when one of the kids cries and that sets off the other one. I always feel like I’m coddling one or the other too much and I’m a little ashamed to say that sometimes I have a hard time telling them apart. I love how much love the put out but sometimes I worry that I’m not living up to the kind of mom I know I should be. I guess I should try not to worry.

Of course the kids were whining about those headless Barbies and hot wheels with only four wheels that I threw out, but really? Really?? While they whined and whined, I just put on my imaginary headphones and imagined my house as a clean, peaceful and clutter-free place of refuge. AAHHHH!!!!!

The recipients of my family’s discards were awarded to my area thrift stores and consignments shops. The big, heavy items were sent to landfills and junk services like The Woodlands junk removal business. I think that has got to be the COOLEST business idea that someone could have ever thought of! You know they say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. All I can say is someone, somewhere is a pretty rich fat-cat off of us!!

Holidays, here we come!

In looking at her calendar for this year, the farthest competition that I can tell will probably be the one that’s in Pennsylvania. I’ve never been there, so visiting the place and seeing the sites will be quite a treat for me. Right now, there’s talk of scheduling one out of the country even, perhaps in Calgary, Alberta. Now if they go there, I’ll be simply beside myself in excitement since that is definitely somewhere that 1. I’ve never been and 2. would be very exciting to see. I’ve read and seen a lot of television on Calgary, but actually going there will be beyond belief. I’m hoping that in order to avoid steep hotel fees, we just might look into Calgary apartments for rent so that the week we’ll spend there won’t be so financially draining on us. After all, we DO have to have a home to come back to.

Also, one of the main things that I’ll be focusing on in these away trips is to find a spa or resort to indulge in while I’m there. I’ve already decided that participating in one of the area spas is a must-do, so I’m getting prepared to do my homework and make it happen!