Something to Party About

'Tis the Season of gathering together with friends and family for Holiday Parties.  I had lunch with a friend the other day and we spent time catching up and talking about how much we enjoy holiday parties.  Parties at work for corporate events, tacky Christmas sweater parties, white elephant exchanges and small family and friend parties.  It seems like everyone makes time for a party this time of year.  But what are we celebrating?  Are we celebrating the coming of winter? The two week break from school?  The 3 day break from work? The end of frantic shopping? Or are we celebrating what Christmas is really about?  The birth of Christ.  I’m writing this in hopes that as you attend the remaining Christmas parties this year that we all remember what we’re really celebrating.  Jesus was born as our savior.  He came to seek and save us. In Luke 15, Jesus tells the Parables of the lost sheep, coin and son.  In all stories they were lost and then found.  Once found there was a big party. Christians were once lost and now are found. There was a time I was very disconnected from God.  He was an after thought, never at the front of my mind.  I didn’t know what was missing until I discovered His grace and great love.  I was once lost and now am found.  Now that’s something to party about :)

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas spent with the ones you love.  It’s time to celebrate how much God loves you.

This is a cool video on how the first Christmas may have been if it were in today's time.  Check it out.

StickyGram

Hey all...as part of procrastinating from everything I need to be doing I thought I'd share this will all of the instagram addicts out there.  If you're anything like me you take pictures of anything and everything and then post it...haha Well check this out....http://stickygram.com/ 

This site allows you to turn your instagram photos into little magnets.  So cool.  I just ordered a sheet for myself :)  They'd make nice gifts (Christmas is right around the corner!) or super fun decorations!  I plan on covering my fridge and dishwasher hahah  For my running friends, you can turn all of your race start and finish line photos into fun keepsakes.  




If you decide to order, here is a code for $2 off  FRIENDFI6P

**I wasn't asked to promote this company.  I just think it's a great idea and haven't posted anything on here in a while.  So enjoy!!

Other fun uses:
Cars
Office Doors
Desks
Washing Machines
Filing Cabinets
umm...anything else metal!

Put One Foot in Front of the Other... Wine and Dine Half Marathon Recap

So it’s time for a race recap!  This past weekend I ran Disney’s Wine and Dine half marathon.  It was my first half and such an awesome weekend.  I finished in 2:23:49 which is awesome considering how I could barely run through the airport in March when trying to catch a flight back to the states from Australia.  My very first run was on May 5, 2012 when I decided to take on this journey.  I set out just to see how far I could go…I felt so out of shape when I didn’t even make a mile.  Who knew I’d be running my first half marathon just 6 months later! 

Expo!  So many runners!

My weekend started Friday morning when I packed by bags and headed to the expo.  Upon entering ESPN WWOS I felt my first wave of race jitters.  It was overwhelming the amount of people there...being a novice runner I’ve never seen so many runners in one place before.  I loved walking around just taking it all in but at the same time I was becoming more and more nervous.  I picked up my packet and then headed to the Animal Kingdom to meet some new friends.  I’m thankful for Team runDisney for introducing me to some great people.  I practically spent the entire weekend with a group of people I’ve not met before (well in person anyways) and it was awesome.

Saved my knees!

That night my mom and her friends got into town… we had dinner and then settled into the hotel for the evening.  It was so nice to see my mom and be able to spend some time with her and her friends this weekend.  I liked her being there to share in the excitement of race weekend with me.  Saturday, race day, was an early start.  I went to breakfast with my mom and her friends and then headed to Hollywood studios.  I showed them around and did a few things but ended up leaving early, around noon, to head back to the hotel for a nap as I was worried about being able to run a race at 10pm when I woke up so early.  Before Saturday, I had never run a night race before and my bedtime is usually before race start.  On the way back to the hotel I stopped back at the expo to get my knees taped.  Many of you know that I’ve been struggling with IT Band issues, some days I make it 10 miles and others I make it 2.  The pain gets that bad…I was praying for a good day but I also wanted to do everything I could to make it a good day.  My friend, Mickey, suggested having them tape my knees with KT tape at the expo.  Best advice ever!!!  Running the race I felt very little knee pain.  My left knee got tight around mile 6 but it was minimal and I had ZERO knee pain the next day!  Now I can’t say it’s all due to the KT tape but I think it played a role along with my knee straps and a lot of prayers!  After the expo I had my pre-race meal with friends at Earl of Sandwich.  Perfect place to carb load :) 

I made it back to the hotel around 4pm, changed into race clothes and passed out.  I woke up at 6pm to get ready to head to the race.  At this point the race day jitters was at an overwhelming high and got the best of me.  I broke down and cried..I managed to get into the car but couldn’t seem to put it in drive.  I was terrified…terrified of working so hard yet not finishing.  I was scared my knees would hurt an unbelievable amount, nervous I’d be too slow.. I called my best friends, my roommates.  They are amazing at these things and calmed me down enough to get me to the race.  They’ve provided me with an unbelievable amount of support through this journey.  I’m very grateful that God placed such caring and supportive friends in my life.

Once I arrived to the race starting area I immediately got in line for a picture with Mickey Mouse.  Would you expect anything different? Hahah I stood in that line for 2 hrs! but didn’t even care.  Disney provided great entertainment while I waited.  Everyone was up and dancing around in their costumes enjoying the few hours before race start.

I wish I would have taken more pictures of the race...I think I was too nervous of being slow to even attempt to take pictures.  I did take a few and will share what I have but I promise I’ll be taking more pictures next Disney race!  As far as the race itself I surprised myself with my performance.  All through training I’d run 2 miles straight and then convert to 3 min run and 1 min walk intervals.  However, during the race I went 6 miles before my first walk break!  And then only walked a minute at the end of each mile.  I didn’t know I was even capable of that…must have been a combination of being terrified, unbelievably excited and all of the adrenaline consuming me.   The first 8 miles went so quickly and then I started to feel the exhaustion from the day.  While running I was listening to my Christian playlist..and it was perfect.  Right when I was feeling exhausted around mile 10  “One Foot” by Building 429 played. 

Action shot!

Lyrics:

I don’t really know where this road is going

I don’t  really know why this door is open

Put one foot in front of the other

…One foot, one foot at a time…

These lyrics spoke to me and gave me the strength I needed to finish.  A reminder to stay strong, I can do it…just keep putting one foot in front of the other.  God never fails to lift me up.  I’m thankful for the perseverance He has taught me.  Without Him I wouldn’t have made it to this point.

The last mile seemed never ending but I made it! I was so excited to finish!

After the race I changed clothes and headed to the after party with friends.   We stayed out until 4 am! Yikes!!  I’d been up for an almost 24hrs!

Sunday morning came way too soon lol.  I headed back to the parks with my mom and her friends.  We walked around played in Epcot.  My mom wore my medal (it was too heavy for me to wear all day) and took in all of the congratulations.  I ended the weekend in Magic Kingdom with Wishes and a ride on Space Mountain.  It was the perfect ending to a perfect weekend :) 

I can’t wait to do it all again in January and then again in February!  That’s right!  I signed up for the Princess Half Marathon yesterday!!

Wow this post was unbelievably long…sorry for that!  Enjoy the few pictures!

Napping on a bench in Epcot Sunday! 

Training Update

I haven’t been the best at keeping to my training schedule lately.  Life has been a little hectic and it seems like my short runs are slipping past me and my long runs are ending short.  This makes me a bit nervous with my first half less than 3 weeks away.   I didn’t get to my long run yesterday so I planned on getting up this morning for a 10 miler before church.  Well I accidently set my alarm for 6pm instead of 6am…ooops haha so needless to say I didn’t wake up until 8:30am.  I was curious as to why my roommate, who has been my training buddy, didn’t wake me up, so I walked over to her room to find her asleep on her bed with her running shoes on!  Evidently she woke up in time but fell asleep waiting for me to get up hahaha. Fail on both of our parts!   We decided to go on a run anyways but a mile in I was feeling very convicted about the possibility of missing church so I only did 4 miles. 

Even only running 4 miles we were running late for church causing me to forget my Bible, and just my luck the projector at church wasn’t working either :( Thankfully, I have the Bible app on my phone so I managed with that.  Upon starting the app, my verse of the day popped up and it was just too perfect for today. 

It was 1 Timothy 4:8.  “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”

Even though I’m annoyed with my training lately I’m glad I didn’t sacrifice a day of church for it.  I would have been kicking myself all week for it.  This might seem silly to some of you but I know my physical fitness is important for these runs but my spiritual health is even more important. Thank you God for that reminder.

I have a lot going on this week too but I’m praying for some more discipline in my training.   Hoping to get in at least one 10 miler at some point.

Color Me Rad 5K Recap

All clean before the race

This is a few weeks late but I wanted to share a Color Me Rad recap.  I’ve gotten a lot of comments/questions on the race so here’s my opinion. LOVED it!!  My roommate and I got up at 5:30am to drive to this race in Jacksonville, FL and it was so worth it.  Kelsey grumbled the entire way there about me making her get up so early to run this race.  However, at the end of the day she was thanking me for making her go.  I think she was even more excited than I was right before the race.  I’ve never seen her so giddy about something ever…especially running..she’s not usually a fan.  We got there 2 hours before race because we were told that we had to pick up race packets the day before but we were unable to do so.   I was worried they wouldn’t allow us to get set up without going the day before so I emailed and they first called me a procrastinator and then said yes we could still go just get there super early so we did :)  We were actually first in line at the registration table.  The volunteers were super helpful and got us everything we needed: bib number, RAD tattoo, Sunglasses, and the best part: dyed cornstarch (ammunition).  After registration we waited around and tried to avoid all of the people who were ripping into their color before race start (this really annoyed Kels)  We didn’t want to get colored before it was time.  Looking back at our before pics I think we were pretty successful at staying clean haha The race itself was a lot of fun, it was my first experience running in a forest.  What a work out..I’m so used to streets and sidewalks.  At every 1K, you’re attacked with color my advise is to not breath as much during this part especially through all of the powder.  Run on the outsides for more color and the inside for less.

I also liked the laid back atmosphere of the race.  It isn’t timed, everyone is just out there to get colored and have a good time.  The announcer even said over a megaphone at the start of the race “if anyone comes up to me after the race asking for their time or what place they finished I’ll punch you in the face. This is for fun people! So you there at the front, jockeying for position, knock it off! You however sir, yes you in the tutu, you win”  hahah  If you can’t tell from their website it’s a super sarcastic race, if you don’t like that, this is NOT a race for you.  You’ll probably just leave feeling like it’s the most unorganized, obnoxious races.  After the race, everyone gathered together and threw color around…we all left looking like aliens.   It took 4 showers to get all of the color off and sometimes I still think I have some in my ear.  Surprisingly, after only 2 washes most of the color came out of my white shirt.  It still has a slight hint of pink in some places but for the most part its restored.  I really wasn’t expecting that.

 I’m looking forward to doing another color run the day after the half marathon in Dec.  It’ll be a nice recovery run.  Just waiting on the registration to open :)  So in short I’m a fan of COLOR ME RAD.

Seven months ago I never thought I'd say this but I'm loving running :)

Here are some pictures and possibly a video (if I can get it to work)

One of my favorite shots.  Definitely captures the race.