Absent

I've been absent for a while. This is my attempt to get back to blogging and use this blog for more than just my 101 in 1001. I got engaged in October, so now I find myself planning a wedding. I'd like to expand this blog to help me get my thoughts out on how that's going. Hopefully I can keep it up :)

# 5 Run a Half Marathon

Okay, it has been WAY too long since I have blogged! I ran the Long Beach Half Marathon on October 11, 2009 and finished in 2:30:27! I was aiming for anything under 2:45, so I'm very pleased with myself. It was great that my dad ran with me. He definitely pushed me and kept me happy and laughing most of the time. Miles 1-7 I felt pretty good, but once I hit mile 8 I started getting really tired. Miles 8-10 were really rough for me, and I walked a lot more than I would have liked, but when I got past the 10 mile marker I realized that this was the farthest I had ever run (uhhh yeah... I was a slacker in my training) and I got a boost of energy from that. It was such a great feeling of accomplishment when I crossed the finish line, and I'm quite proud of myself :)

I recently decided I would like to do it again next year. We'll see if that current desire actually manifests itself into training and signing up, but as of now, that's the plan.

Amanda's Dream

This has absolutely nothing to do with my 101 goals, but I thought it was hilarious and didn't want to lose it amongst all my other emails. One of my best friends, Amanda, had a dream about my future wedding and I received a several paragraph email from her about it. Here is that email:

"I had the weirdest dream that you got married last night. I woke up wondering if I had a large dose of opium before I went to sleep it was so bizarre. So check it out…

The wedding was in Kingwood, which is odd because your wedding actually was in the California State Capitol Building. That was cool, though, because Arnold Swachernagger (sp?) came by to shake our hands. You had this absolutely gorgeous dress, but you only wore it when you took a picture or during the ceremony. The other times you had a black Harry Potter-style robe on top of your gown. I, on the other hand, had the world’s ugliest dress. It was bright yellow with sections missing throughout the dress, and it had this thick brown wool sweater sewed onto it but just the arms and collar of said sweater.

I was there with my mom, dad and Ryan. The table you put us in was with your dad’s old friends – Lorenzo Lamas (a washed-up action actor) and a sumo wrestler. Before the wedding, you had everyone sit at their reception tables, but you didn’t tell us when the wedding started. Randomly, I walked into the ceremony area, and it looked like you were in the middle of getting married. But then I saw these life-sized wooden dolls in the seats (which were extremely creepy, by the way), so I thought they were your “practice” audience. However, I realized that real people were scattered in the audience, too, and someone told me that it was your real wedding going on.

During your wedding, you kept having casual conversations and laughing while the minister was marrying you, which was odd. Jillian was your maid of honor, and your bridesmaid was some girl I had never seen before, but they had super ugly dresses on – ivory satin with this Statue of Liberty-like sash. Plus, they were really frumpy. After the ceremony, I went to my hotel room to cut of the sweater part because I was so hot. I ran into you and Nathan in the hall, and you told me that you might not come back to the reception because you and Nathan were going to go, well, you know, wink, wink. I got really upset and was like, what?! I haven’t even seen you! You’re just going to ditch your wedding?

So I ran off crying, and all of a sudden, I was running on this rocky beach, and you and Nathan came running after me apologizing. But you turned into Emily, and she came out of the ocean. So Emily (or supposedly you) said that I was right and decided to schedule another reception. So we went to this little shack that sells cruises around the bay and were going to book one for another reception. All of a sudden, I was naked but had a giant beach ball to cover me. I ran to the bathroom and woke up."

Shin Splints and other Running Woes

Ouch! I wish I could say my half marathon training was going great, but I've been having a lot of leg issues lately. My left shin has been bugging me with some painful shin splints and my left calf has had a funky pain in it. They actually hurt more when I'm just hanging out or when I'm walking or standing. After the first 10-20 minutes of my run it really doesn't bother me anymore, but afterward it is much worse. I've been using the first half of the RICE method (Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation) and the rest, especially seems to be helping. Unfortunately, this much rest is NOT a part of my half marathon training program! I'm getting a little bit nervous that this is really going to mess with my ability to finish the LB half. I haven't run since Saturday, when I did a pretty good 5 mile run (56 min, my fastest 5 miler yet). I'm really going to try and work through this.

The other thing that makes training for this race difficult is my schedule (or lack thereof). I don't always know where I'm going to be, or when I'm going to be working a 14 hour day (or all night) or if I'll just have one short flight and a long layover. This has been making it pretty difficult to get into any kind of regular training schedule. I know I shouldn't complain too much about my schedule, since I really do have it pretty good, but certain things have just been grating on my nerves.

On a good note, I've worked my way up to 7 miles so far for my long run, and I've still got 2 months before the race.

This has been a venting post... I'll try and make my next post a happy one!

Mad Skillz

There's a reason I want to take a cake decorating class, and this is it:



I suppose it's alright for a first try, but I would love to be able to do even more. I guess I need to get to work on #13!

#10 Finish reading Atlas Shrugged

Wow. At 1200 pages I'm pretty sure this is the longest book I've ever read cover to cover and loved. This novel by Ayn Rand was first published in 1957, but it doesn't feel out of touch. It amazes me how relevant this book is today. I haven't written a book review in years, so I'll keep this short and sweet. Amazing book. Go read it.

Who is John Galt?

#s 48, 60, 65

#48 Get a good pedometer
#60 Get a Britta water filter and a good, sturdy water bottle to use instead of bottled water
#65 Get a AAA membership

Check, check and check. I figured none of these needs it's own blog entry. :) Let's just say I'm counting my steps, loving my new water bottle, and feeling much safer driving around Houston.