I finished my first half-marathon this morning. The Helvetia Half Marathon is 13.1 miles through the beautiful countryside of Hillsboro, Oregon. Translation? Lots and lots of hills. I’d been training for flat, so the hills were killer, but I finished in 2hrs, 14-15 minutes (not sure on exact time as I didn’t look at the clock as I crossed the finish line, but that’s a pretty close estimate). I’m pretty happy, my goal was to finish at 2:20 – without knowing about the hills – and I beat that. I feel pretty good right now, but I’m sure the tiredness will catch up to me soon. Before today the most I’d ever ran was 10 miles in training. My running partner (who runs full marathons) is already trying to talk me into running the half of the Portland Marathon in October. Not entirely sure about that yet. I need a few days recovery from this one.

In other news…STOLEN SEDUCTION is really coming along. I’m totally in love with my hero. I’ve been waiting to write him since I wrote STOLEN FURY, so I’m enjoying the entire process. I think I may just be a little sad when this series is over. But excited about what I have planned next.

Next week the kids and I are off to central Oregon with a friend to stay at her vacation home. We’re taking my niece as babysitter because both of us have to work. I’m hoping to make some serious progress on SS while I’m there. I’ll have internet so I’ll try to post from the resort.

Are you a runner? If so, I’d love to hear about it. If not…what’s one thing you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t yet?

Because I suddenly realized it’s been nearly a week since I blogged!

Weather Report: It’s 53 degrees and rainy. Where did summer go????? I refuse to give up my flip flops. Jeans, a sweater and flip-flops. Yeah. That’s stylish. Not even three weeks ago it was 102 degrees. That’s right. A fifty degree swing.

The Gremlins have three more days of school. THREE. MORE. DAYS. That’s it. Looooooord help me. I fear a long summer ahead with me on deadline. I may be calling grandma to come and save me. A lot.

My half marathon is just over a week away. Today I bought new running shoes – finally – and proceeded to freak out when I realized the size the clerk sold me was a 10!!! (I never looked at the size as I was trying them on, and when she kept telling me I needed more toe room, I nodded like I had a freakin’ clue what I was doing. Who knew you were supposed to have lots of room in your running shoes? Maybe this will help my neuromas.) Normally I wear an 8.5.

The DH is a god. Last night he came home, took one look at me and realized I was stressing over books and deadlines and promo stuff. So he’s kicking me out of the house. A night away at the beach with my web designer next week so we can finish up my website and get that thing done. I love him. I really do. He takes good care of me.

My buddy Kendra and I are taking a handgun class in July. This weekend I have to be “fitted” for my gun. That sounds so cool, doesn’t it? Can’t wait for this one. Kendra just finished up a citizen’s police academy course. She had a blast. I’m planning to take one in the fall.

Tomorrow I’m blogging about series over at the Mid-willamette Valley Chapter blog. Stop by and tell me what you think about series. Specifically, I want to know when a series gets to be too long.

Oh, and I saw the new Indy movie! I had mixed feelings. Tell me what you thought of it.

I love shoes. I’m a girl. I can’t help it. It’s in my genetics. Being as it’s now sandal season, I love shoes even more. Especially cute orange sandals (like the pair I just bought – CUTE!) with pretty painted toe-nails. Pedicures are my guilty pleasure. Right now my toes are au-natural with white tips (AKA: French). And they do look nice. Most days. Just not today.

My half-marathon is two weeks from tomorrow – June 14th. Today was my last looooong run before R-day (run day). Eight miles. The good part? It was in the 50′s when I left. The bad part? I had to run alone. Eight long, lonely miles all by myself because my running partner wasn’t around. (Can you hear Deirks Bentley singing, ‘It’s a long trip alone…’?) And because I ran alone, bad things happened.

You see, I have no problem shopping for adorable sandals to go with outfits. I love browsing shoe shops and the mall looking for that can’t-pass-up-pair. But running shoes??? Ugh. Boring. They’re NOT cute. And they’re NOT fun to shop for. And because I have this weird nerve thing in my left foot that makes my toes go numb anytime I run over six miles, I need to have special stabilizer shoes that you can’t just grab at the local Nike outlet. Which means, I have to go to a special running store. With the 3-yr old. Get on the treadmill. Have them watch me run, then pick out a pair I’ll probably have to special order. How fun is that??? Shop for un-cute shoes and then not even get to leave the store with them? Ack!

So in my wisdom, I have pushed off going running shoe shopping. And today I’m paying the price. My left foot has been semi-numb all day from my nine mile run (yeah, you read that right. NINE miles, not eight. Without my running partner I ran more than I was supposed to because she wasn’t there telling me when to stop.) And because that pretty French pedicure was just a little longer than it should have been, when I whipped off my sock I found a bloody stump where one nail had gouged another toe and ripped it to shreds. Fun, huh? The only good part about the whole fiasco is I spent a lot of time thinking and working through plot issues in the current WIP while I was running, but still…my feet hurt.

My latest splurge:

So what’s your guilty pleasure?

Ran 8 miles today. My feet hurt. My legs are sore. Have I ever mentioned my running partner is a slave drive? No? Let me do so now…..slllllllllllllllllllllave driver. To the max. After all this running I better look freakin’ hot by the time we go to Hawaii in August.

(In case you didn’t know, I’m training for my first half-marathon in June. Today was my longest run to date. I don’t know how I’m going to survive thirteen. Ay ya ya…)

In other news…tomorrow my RWA chapter has an all day workshop, so I’ll be there most of the day. Should be fun. I love hangin’ with my gals. I really want to go to the Reader’s Luncheon the Rose City Romance Writers are putting on next Saturday, but alas, it’s not going to happen. That’d be two weekends in a row gone for writing stuff. At some point I need to go watch my two older gremlins play baseball.

Just for laughs (or shock, you pick), you should go over and read Gemma Halliday’s post from Friday at Killer Fiction. Oh. My. God. I’m so thankful I’m happily married.

What’s on your agenda for the weekend?