Wendy Mastripolito

WE ARE HERE.. In Sunny COLD Florida... and I think everyone who lives in Florida resides in OCALA... The traffic here put my morning commute in PA to shame...I pictured Horse Farms.. countryside.. and flowers.. not even close... so far.. the words .. PHILLY... seem to be more accurate.. will see what tomorrow brings.. I took some more notes on drive from Savannah to Ocala... (thats me in the pic) ..not much to report.. other than the 45 minutes it took at Quiznos to get our lunch ...OH...and that I almost ran over an older guy with my truck at the Florida Welcome Center. .. I mean I felt REALLY bad... it was an honest mistake..!!... thank goodness his wife caught him....and that he didn't smack my truck with his cane... DONT ASK...poor old man.. jeez us... I am going to H-ll for sure... Went to the Walmart and got us a couple throw away sweatshirts.. figured that would be the best option for tomorrow's freeze start and the subsequent heat finish... only problem is that I have ...

YO.. so we wake up in Savannah, GA...and it's like 30 degrees out... so I weather.com it and according to the hopefully inaccurate weather people... they say that tomorrow.. MARATHON DAY.. will start at 27 degrees in sunny Ocala .. and be around 60 degrees by the time we finish... NOT believing that because we will be in FLORIDA.... I go on NOAA (National Weather).. and there is a FREEZE warning for Ocala for tonight... with this statement: THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN JACKSONVILLE HAS ISSUED A FREEZE WARNING... WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 3 AM TO 9 AM SUNDAY. COLD HIGH PRESSURE BUILDING INTO THE REGION WILL ALLOW FOR SUB-FREEZING TEMPERATURES THIS MORNING. DURATIONS OF 3 TO 5 HOURS BELOW 32 DEGREES WILL BE POSSIBLE WITH MINIMUM TEMPERATURES IN THE UPPER 20S. AREAS OF FROST WILL BE POSSIBLE. ANOTHER FREEZE EVENT IS EXPECTED SATURDAY TONIGHT WITH MINIMUM TEMPERATURES BOTTOMING OUT IN THE UPPER 20S EARLY SUNDAY MORNING. LIGHT WINDS WILL ALLOW FOR A HEAVY FROST AS WELL. SOOO .. how d...

We are in Savannah, GA ... took us 12+ hours of "blissful" driving... Let see....I took some notes.. we were up a total of 36+ hours straight ...(Thursday @ 5:30am went to work, then came home, packed, and then left for our trip at midnight.. it is now Friday @ 6:30pm).. yeah working on that mental aspect of staying awake for 36+ hours in case I ever do like the Western States 100 miler race or something....UM NOT.... Eyeballs feel like they are coming out of their sockets..... encountered some oh WAY TOO CHEERFUL PEOPLE in Virginia....stepford??....saw Lava chunks in the road... I DID!...black rocks with steam coming off them ... yeah must be those hallucinations settling in... Sleep deprivation... think I am going to die... a- shole in hotel wouldn ’t let us in our room when we arrived at 1:30pm... told us we had to wait until 2:30pm.. .. MAN DON’T BE MESSING WITH MY TIRED A_S!!!.... he said it was because they were overbooked.. funny we were one of three cars in parking ...

This is Joe getting instruction from his coach (aka: the kitty..... ) "Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're a lion or gazelle - when the sun comes up, you'd better be running." - Unknown

Well, I qualified for the 2009 Colorado State Games .... cool huh???...They hold these games every two years and by “winning” a spot in the top three of my age group in my track events (400M, 800M, 1500M, & 3000M) in the summer of 2007... I qualified to go…they just sent me the announcement… of course the fact that out of the four events I did in 2007, that I was the only one in my age group for two of them should not deter my enthusiasm for qualifying! ...HA.. Remember it’s who shows up to run!! Alas, I cannot go... it’s during the Duffy Family Vacation and well it’s a LONG drive to Colorado.. so will have to pass this year.. ....although the medals are really, really cool.. and did you see??.. they have an archery event.. !...hmmm.. gotta look into this ....(click on picture above for link to Colorado State game site. Here is the note I received: Dear SGA Qualifier, Congratulations...you have qualified for the 2009 State Games of America by winning a gold, silver, or bronze med...

I just pulled up the elevation chart for the Ocala Marathon (click on picture for website) in Florida that Joe and I are doing on Sunday, February 1st ... and well .. um... they state the course is a two loop course with rolling hills... BUT I THOUGHT FLORIDA WAS FLAT!!? ....Can't wait.. less than a week and we will be heading south for our yearly vacation with the parents in sunny ..hopefully WARM FLORIDA.. YES!!... SO OF COURSE we have to stop on our way and run... a marathon..I am just trying to figure out who will be the driver afterwards....hmmm.....should we go with whoever crosses the line first or whoever has function of their feet? Ocala Marathon Elevation Chart I SOOO hope to have a week of rest, relaxation and NO DRAMA! Especially after this week with the whole dog fiasco, Heather locking her keys in her car fiasco, and someone stealing my identity on Ebay fiasco... so a little bit of R&R is what the doctor is prescribing.. "B y the way, how relaxing is a 19 ...

This am… Isabella, our 16 year old Lhasa Apso (dog)… got herself lost. Mostly blind and deaf…. she somehow got herself confused when she went outside and for the first time in the five years we have lived at our new house…. she got herself missing. 5:40 am – I let Isabella outside (for the second time)… “Boy Joe it’s cold out.. 17 degrees… brrr”… 10 minutes later.. “Joe did you let Isabella back in?”…. nope.. hmm… I shine a flashlight from the door into back yard.. out window into side yard, out front door into front yard.. listen.. no noise.. nothing… hmm.. “Joe where the heck is she?”.. So I ..(ha..please don’t laugh).. am in my footed skull flannel jumping jammers (PJ’s), a housecoat, and I slip into some knee high flowered rain boots, hat, gloves and coat and with flashlight in hand venture outside to look for her.. wading through the snow… …I am calling her name.. (she is deaf by the way)… I am starting to freak out.. I mean HOW FAR COULD SHE HAVE GONE!!??. ... after walking a c...

There is just no way to describe what it felt like on Saturday morning at 6am… the thermometer read -2…yeah that's right... NEGATIVE 2... eeekk gads.....within a few hours it reached a whopping ZERO degrees .. Halleluiah … freaking heat wave… So after much debate ...and waiting ...until way after lunch.. and with it now being sub tropic at 14 degrees.. I said, " NO WAY .. not going to do it.. UH NO.. NOT.. NIL.. NADA" … "Not running OUTSIDE in that …. ridiculous!!"… Joe on the other hand said he was…um...brave man... thankfully I DID convince him to run part outside and part inside.. thus 3.5 miles outside, then change, and do 3.5 on treadmill…thus he did really well… came back only slightly blue.. hope that was fun hon. So what to do about the long run on Sunday? We had a 13-16 miler scheduled.. no way we were doing that on treadmill.. and it was a bit warmer.. 28 degrees.. hmmm ...so we decided that would be a bit more manageable.. except the part where my...

2008 Year Highlights.. (looking forward to a fantastic 2009!)

Well on Saturday we had a 6-8 mile run scheduled. … it was a good ole um 29 degrees out…and sleeting.. yeah no thanks.. going to run inside on treadmill ……Joe says he would rather chew his arm off ...or something like that (about being on the treadmill that long) and ops to put on a ton of clothes and run outside.. have fun there bud ....He checked on me before he went out into the frozen tundra.. Joe to Wendy, “So what mile you at there pal?”… So who had more fun??? Well lets see...I got to run like a hamster for an hour and 20 minutes while looking at a blank white wall, dang near sending me to the psycho ward.. . (note to self: obtain a TV or something and place in front of treadmill).. Joe came in with wild eyes.. and a thin coating of frost on his hat.. Pick your poison... Looking for spring…

I HAVE to tell you.. Joe was away on business last night.. so I was on "dog duty". ..should be no problem... I get her dinner, take her out (twice) and then run water for a bath for myself.. no sooner than I get in my bath I hear her barking at the backdoor. I ignore her.. I know she can't possibly have to go out again.. she has been out twice in the last hour.. Patience.. she will stop… NO.. she gets PISSED that I am ignoring her and she marches herself all the way to the bathroom door and then proceeds to bark LOUDLY at the bathroom door.. SIGH.. THUS I CAN HEAR YOU.. so I get out of my bath.. soaking everything on the way to back door to let her out .. tap.. tap.. tap...wait patiently for her to get done her business (as I dang near freeze to death waiting)…done, great.. back to bath.. So we finally get settled for the night or so I think… At 2am she has an allergy attack and I have to get up and get her medicine and OH LET HER OUT AGAIN … I stumble out of bedroom, ...

Went to my Sports Massage Therapist last night for the first of a few sessions to help elevate some residual pains and aches from all the crap I did last year.... OH boy is he a GOD OF HURT… After my first session with him a week or so ago, I noticed that I could actually rotate my hip again while running .. it felt REALLY good to run… amazing how you don’t realize how LOCKED up your body can be and how your body will adapt to bad habits. Everyone thinks of massages and or stretching with words such as OHHHs and AHHHS, and something like warm water running down your back.. but perhaps given that if I was NOT being twisted into the shape of a pretzel and kneaded into a ball of dough that perhaps.. just maybe… I could say something more than OW>>> and EWE>. And .. UGH>.. AND JEEZ US …. but the goal is recovery and to get me running really well again. And my God of Hurt does an AWESOME job..! So after being stretched, pulled, prodded, and had pointy fingers stuck into my hi...

Check Out my website: www.wmastripolito.com Here are pics from it.. I will keep the link on the side bar of the blog. I thought it was a great idea to keep all my projects in one area...

We opted for the Mastripolito Mile instead of the 5K!! Weather: 17 degrees with 12-15 mph winds..so wind chill of around 4.. humidity 40%...(so winds not as bad as previously stated..BUT STILL FREAKING COLD) Well I tell you.. it was sooo cold last night that I convinced Joe that doing a Mastripolito Mile was SOO much better than the Mastripolito 5K (3 miles)!!!! And he calls me a WHOOSE... !!!....I said whatever .. I don’t care.. but if you want to do the 3 miles instead.. FINE...I will do it... (I am no whoose)... so almost right before the time to leave he goes outside to check this out.. .. and he is like WTF... !!!....it's freaking cold out there.. NO SH-T there buddy...um duh. So we did the mile instead.. THANKFULLY SO.. .. but it was horrible.. I am wearing TONS of clothes.. like long johns, under armour leggings, sweats, then on top I had five layers... and then hat, gloves, flashlight, face gaiter… I must of weighed 5-10 pounds more than I usually do.. So we go tearing u...