I'm a Loser After All....

The Biggest Loser competition is over with. We still get to log our workouts for points, but the weigh in and measurements are done. Drumroll please....



I've lost 9 inches overall. My weight isn't worth mentioning, because in true Air Force style, I fudged my initial weigh in to be a little "heavier." Hey, if you aren't cheating, then you aren't really trying! Besides, I'll take the inches over weight any day. Guess the running really has done some good for me.

The biggest thing I think I learned out of this was that your body is only as good as the fuel you put in it. If you eat crap, you'll feel like crap during your training. If you eat wholesome, nutritious foods, you'll feel on top of the world. Not to say that I don't eat my share of "soul" foods, but I think we've done a better job all around to eat healthier.

I also read "Food Rules" by Michael Pollan, who also wrote "In Defense of Food." It wasn't earth shattering, but it was a lot of common sense in one place. My favorite rules are "If you aren't hungry enough to eat an apple, then you aren't hungry" and "Don't eat anything your great-grandmother would recognize as food." The last one had me rolling because I could just picture Grandmomma (my dad's grandma) trying to figure out what the heck a PopTart was supposed to be.

So, I'm trying to figure out when/where my next race will be. Right now, it's looking like the May 5K to Marathon Madness at the base. Basically, they want everyone to "run" a marathon one 5K at a time. Sounds like fun to me!

Happy sweating ya'll!

NEW AND IMPROVED: Music! Just Imagine....

March is Music in Our Schools month. Osan Elementary celebrates by putting on a Kindergarten concert. We were so lucky to have returned in time for this because what a treat it was! Ms. Downey, Holly's music teacher, has been working with the children to get them ready for the performance. They sang six songs, including two of my favorites "This Little Light of Mine" and "You Are My Sunshine."

Here is the much anticipated video! Holly is in the middle of the pack with a red vest. If you can't see the video, I uploaded a better quality one to our Picasa album (see right-hand side for links).

Enjoy!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Jet lag is no joke... especially for the super schedule-driven Oliver clan. Being a schedule-driven family is a blessing and a curse at times. Blessing because it's easy for the girls to know when things are going to happen and what will come next, but also knowing that the schedule will change from time to time if need be. But it's a curse when it comes to the 13 hour time shift that accompanies the trans-Pacific flight.

I think we're through the worst of it, as the girls were up at 5 am this morning rather than 2 am. Just a few more good nights of sleep and we'll be 100%.

CRUD and the fiercest women I know!

WARNING: Don't mess with the ladies at Osan... I've seen what these women can do, and you don't want to be in the middle of it. Just sayin'!

Now that you've been properly warned, I'll tell you why. We had the base Crud Tournament on Friday night and these women can kick some @$$. I heard comments from the peanut gallery that some of them play like men.

If you were like, Chris what the heck are you talking about, Crud is a timeless tradition in the Air Force. A game of Crud involves running frenetically around the table, trying to grab the shooter ball and either strike the object ball before it stops moving or sink it, while a player from the other team tries to block your shot by blocking your view of the object ball or by blocking your access to it. You can see where this can put the "Contact" in full contact sport.

I am so lucky to have a great team who kept up practices while I dilly-dallied in the States. The Lady Draggins hit the Crud tournament in full stride. We won our first game, almost won the second, and were spanked in our third. I have a bruise the size of my fist and strangely enough, the shape of Australia, on my thigh and one on my waist. And I'm lucky that's all I have, because I've had much worse from playing less.

PILSUNG Lady Draggins!

Annyong Kyesayo

The bags are packed (well, almost...) and Grandma is reading a book to the girls... it's our last night in Florida for a while. It's been a whirlwind trip and we got to do a lot while here. Most of it was spending time with our family, but we squeezed in some good old fashioned Florida fun. Here's what we sqeezed in the last week of our visit.

We ate at Dixie Crossroads, a local favorite. The problem I have with most seafood restaurants is that they forget the ocean is just a few blocks away. The prices at Dixie Crossroads are so reasonable that you can feed a family and still have money for food the next day. I enjoyed the rock shrimp, Ronnie got his fried shrimp and we all enjoyed the corn fritters and crab bites. I'm salivating just thinking about it.....

The River Run.... Don't think there is much more that I can say about this except we'll be back!

Whitey's Fish Camp - After Dixie Crossroads, we had to go get some steamed oysters. Another local favorite that won't break the bank is Whitey's Fish Camp. It's not oyster season so the Apalachicola's were on the small side, but they were still pump and so fresh. The best part was convincing the girls we were eating boogers.

Spring Training is in full swing and the Atlanta Braves' camp is in Orlando. We took the girls to their first baseball game. I taught them well - they think the best part of watching the Braves is Chipper Jones! The first stringers made a show for the first 3 innings, and Chipper was on deck when we entered the ballpark. Of course, we also took advantage of ballpark food: hot dogs, peanuts, cotton candy, and snow cones made it into our 6 inning diet.

Rocket Launch... well, almost. We waited to watch for it, but the girls were tired so we gave up. It went off later that night and I showed them on the NASA site what we didn't see outside.

So sad that we're leaving, but home is calling us. Come see us if you get a chance, we would love to share Korea with you.

Daddy has Superpowers!

This was too cute and funny to not share. While Ronnie was taking a shower the other day, Sarah decided to go in the bathroom to potty. Ronnie peeked out and said hi to her.

Sarah was surprised and said, "Daddy, is that you?"

"Yes, Sarah, it's me."

"Daddy? Where are you?"

"I'm in the shower."

"Daddy? Are you invisible?"

So cute!

From that day on, if I was ever going somewhere, I was running!

The River Run has officially been checked off the bucket list! YES!!!!! Ronnie and I ran in yesterday's run and we couldn't have had a better time. Ronnie finished with a triple Pilsung time (75 minutes) and I met my goal with a chip time of 2:14:36.

Saying this was the race of my life wouldn't do it justice. So, I figured I would share some of my highlights with everyone:

Mile 1 - The gun went off and the crowd erupted in applause. You could feel the energy in the air that this was gonna be a great race. There was a lot of bumping as people were trying to run past others who weren't running the same pace. A great start with a good time and off to the Main Street bridge we went.

Mile 3/5K - I felt like I finally hit my groove during mile 2 and hit the split I wanted to when I crossed the 5K point. Running through San Marco brought back some great memories, but this is where we first got a taste of how supportive Jacksonville really is of this race. One house was handing out ice cold orange slices. YUM!

Mile 5 - half way there! Again, running through the neighborhoods and seeing the people tailgate to cheer you on just lifts you up. This was where the half-way there Heineken stop was! Ice cold shot of beer was exactly what I needed.

Mile 6/10K - brought to you by my mom! I had gone through and synced music on my iPod that would help me run mile after mile. By mile 6, my legs were starting to turn to jello, my heel was aching, my hips were on fire. And then it came on, Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer." It was like my mom was right there cheering for me. Exactly what I needed to buoy me through the next few miles, because at the 10K turn, I saw the big Green Monster off in the distance. My 10K split was purposely slower, as I wanted to save a little for the bridge.

Mile 8 - 1.5 miles at a 7% grade. Welcome to the Hart bridge, aka Hart-break bridge, the big Green Monster. My plan of attack, march straight up that SOB and jog down the backside, but I had a secret weapon... Again, I had synced my iPod - Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird (LIVE)" was my theme song for the bridge. When I got to the top and looked out over the river and saw the view of downtown, I was overwhelmed. I had actually done this, there was only a mile left of this HUGE race, and I was standing at the top of this huge bridge.

15K - descending from the bridge and getting closer and closer to the finish line, I felt my legs and hips trying to give out on me. But this is where the mental aspect of the race came in. I had my watch going and knew I was going to be close to my goal of 2:15. This time it was the band at the turn for the finish line was my motivator - I heard them playing "Sweet Home Alabama" and switched off my iPod. I rounded the corner and saw the finish line. FINALLY! I crossed the line with a few seconds to spare to my goal. I collected my medal and went off to find Ronnie, who had been patiently waiting for me.