this morning i ran for the "L" of it...

last week i signed up for the university of louisville's run for the "L" of it 5k.
i did my first road race last october and since then i've done at least one race a month.
so i figured i better keep up the trend as long as i could.
barely squeezed one in for may.
that's pretty much the only reason i signed up for it.
because honestly, now that i've done longer races i kind of don't like 5k's anymore.
they're too fast.

anyway.

i've done three 5k's before this one and my time has gotten about a minute better at each.
my PR was 30:14 and i wanted so badly to break a 30 minute 5k.
BUT...
i haven't been training since the half marathon...over a month ago.
i've run maybe 8 times total since then {slacker!} with the longest being 4 miles.
and i ran ZERO last week.
SO... i wasn't really expecting a PR.
i guess mostly i just wanted to see how it would go.
my strategy... well i didn't really have one but i figured i'd just push it and see what happened.



i finished my first mile in 8:49.
umm...since when can i run a sub-9 minute mile?!
i've never done that before!!!
i wondered if i'd gas out and regret it later.
but i felt pretty good and was mostly running by feel anyway.
of course, the next 2 miles were a little slower, but that was to be expected.

other than that, the race itself was pretty uneventful..
no roadkill, no poopy pants, no screaming crowds {or random dudes on the side of the road!}...
just me and my music.

the highlights of the race were running into little kosmo twice along the course.
i'm so glad we ended up bringing him.
he's so cute and he loved every minute of it!



he loved all the new sights, sounds, and smells.
so excited!
he tried to say hello to everybody that walked by!
including a horse!


i finally neared the end and wondered if i was going to be able to pull off that PR..
it was pretty close.
it was also pretty hot and i was sweating like a pig!
phew...definitely getting tired.


finally saw the finish line and went as fast as i could!

i came in at 29:56!
i was pretty surprised but very happy.
a 20 second PR and barely broke the 30 minutes by 4 seconds :o)
yay me!

kosmo was proud!

i also ran into erica afterwards.
good to see her since we haven't seen each other since the mini!

so anyway. just thought i would share my good news.
hope everyone has a fun & safe memorial day!
our tentative weekend plans include: making homemade ice cream, going to the family farm, having dinner with my mom, & going to the neighbor's house to watch the ufc fight tonight..


but little sicky has bronchitis & apparently asthma so he may be glued to the bed all day.
so we'll see what happens.

p.s. he came to my race this morning even though he's sick... so supportive :)

Stats:
Run for the L of It 5k

May 29, 2010

Distance: 3.1 miles

Time: 29:56 / 9:35 pace

the little things.

i found this quote the other day on a blog i found called notebook doodles. i love all the little thought-provoking quotes scribbled in cute little doodles on that site.

i'm sitting here watching csi:ny with josh... it's 10:15pm and i'm ready for bed.. i am officially getting old. or it could be the headache i have that won't go away and keeps getting worse despite all the drugs i've taken. either way, i probably shouldn't mention that i was in bed and asleep by this time last night. before my mom even. told you... old.

sorry i haven't blogged much this week {to all 3 of my readers}. i've been in a funk for the past few days {i think it's called pms but i'm not sure.} i guess it's just been one of those weeks.

you know the ones.

filled with days like this --
you get up in the morning with a headache. hop in the shower only to find that the water is lukewarm and there is a spider in there... just too high up to reach and kill... but you have to close your eyes to wash out the shampoo and ohmigosh where did that spider go? there's nothing in the fridge for lunch. you cut your finger slicing an apple. hit every red light on the way to work. turn the radio station just as your favorite song is over. long day at work so you don't feel like going to the gym in the evening. then get mad at yourself for being lazy and not going so you eat too many girl scout cookies. then you feel even worse about yourself and go to bed on a sugar high. blahh...
--those kind of days.

so anyway.

i'm tired of letting all that stuff get to me. after all, i have way too much awesome stuff in my life to be bummed out for too long.

like, you know, sharing an ice cream sandwich with my man. we shared it bite by bite... can you tell which side i ate off? the left side. i don't exactly think it's fair that he gets more ice cream just because he has a bigger mouth.... but oh well, i still love him.

the 24 series finale on monday... i sure am gonna miss that jack bauer.

the biggest loser finale on tuesday.. we made our homemade pizza again. we started a tradition last fall {biggest loser pizza night} and it started off with homemade pizza but then we got lazy and started ordering pizza or getting frozen california pizza kitchen pizza... but we made it on tuesday. pretty good if i do say so myself!

yesterday kosmo asked to go out so i let him out the side garage door as normal and went back to doing whatever i was doing. when he didn't come back in for a little while i went to look for him thinking holy crap i hope i didn't lose josh's dog! little homie just wanted to lay in the sun.... don't we all?

fresh flowers on the table... of course they're dead & gone now, but they made me happy while they lasted.

i just love him and i can't even put it into words. he makes me smile :)

and kosmo's pretty cute too.

just some tidbits from this week... it may have been a little blahhh but it was also pretty beautiful.


i love my life and everyone in it! too blessed to be stressed! :o)

i hope you have a wonderful friday.

23 hour Tennessee trip

On Saturday Mom and I went to Tennessee for Union's graduation. It was the first time I had been back in a year, which was kind of weird. We weren't even gone for 24 hours.... here's how it broke down:

Hours 1-4: So excited to be on a little girls' road trip!

Hour 5: Things took a turn for the slow. Cruising at a snail's pace... 5mph. I had to pee the entire time, too.



Hour 6: Finally made it to Jackson. 30 minutes late to graduation. Usually it takes 4.5-5 hours to get there. This time it took 6.5.

Hours 7 & 8: Graduation.




Hour 9: Dinner at Moe's.

Hours 10-13: PARTY.




Hours 14-18: Sleep.

Hours 19-23: Drive home.

And that was our super short trip to Jackson!

It may have been a super short trip {and spent mostly driving} but it was still good to see my TN girls! I love all of them and wish they lived closer! It's weird for me to think that come August, Rindi will be my only friend who still lives there, and she'll probably be moving soon too. Trips to Jackson will probably never be the same again :o(

Congrats to Kristen for finally graduating after 5 years!! And Goley for getting her Master's Degree!!!

Planting Flowers With Mom

My mom is teaching me everything she knows about flowers {which is a lot!} and last night we planted some begonias {I think}. According to her, they're a very resilient flower and it's really hard to kill them! I asked her what would happen if I forgot to water them and she said they'd live anyway! I'm not sure that I actually want to test that theory, but hopefully I won't kill them! Luckily, with as much as it's been raining here lately, it probably really wouldn't matter if I did forget to water them!

Maybe if this flower thing goes well I will start planting vegetables! I'm sure that's entirely different though, isn't it?

Now what?

I wasn't sure how I would feel after running the half marathon.
Honestly, I was getting a little burnt out on the training.
So I wasn't sure if I would be thankful it was over and glad I no longer had to run....
Or if I would love it and want to immediately sign up for more!

Well, I definitely loved it and I'm definitely going to do it again!
Now I just have to figure out where.

One of the things on my 23 things list is to run a half marathon out of town.
The ones I've found that are actually before my birthday are in San Diego and Seattle.
Either of which I would love to do, but they're both sold out!
So I'm going to be okay with just having a half marathon out of town planned before my birthday.
We have talked about San Francisco.
Or Akron or Philly again.

I love San Francisco so it would be great to go back there and so awesome to run across the Golden Gate Bridge! I definitely want to run this race at some point, but I don't know if I'll do it this year.
I met the race director of Akron at the Derby expo and he was super nice, and Josh loved that race last year so it would fun to do that one as well {although I hear there is a KILLER hill at the end!!!}
And of course it would be awesome to run Philly because that was the half marathon that inspired me to do one in the first place.
There's also Chicago {Josh is doing the full marathon there in October} or Virginia Beach, both of which I think would be fun.
And of course there are the ones later in the year... like Las Vegas or Los Angeles... either of which would be pretty awesome, but really I would like to do one before then!

So, I'm not sure..
But I'm definitely planning on running at least one more half marathon this year!!!!

Suggestions? Is anyone signed up for any half marathons this year... or have any advice/opinions on any of the ones I mentioned, or any at all for that matter? I'd love to hear them!!

*photo is of Josh's feet; taken over our lazy weekend :)

may may may

i can't believe may is already over half over.
i guess that's what happens when you're out of the country for the first week of a month.
and then have something going on every weekend for the rest of it.

busy busy busy.

but still fun...

on thursday night ariel invited us out to the improv to see jon reep {& to meet her new boyfriend!}
that dude is hilarious... jon reep, i mean.. not ariel's boyfriend.
although he was a nice guy, too {we approve, ariel!}
but seriously, i laughed the entire time!
afterwards, we all went to howl at the moon.
it's a fun little bar with live music and they take requests.
they played britney spears for ariel... and "baby got back."
SO MUCH FUN.


ariel made me go on stage with her when they sang "baby got back."
they put bumper stickers on our butts when we were up there.
soooo that was fun.

on saturday we went to my brother eric's graduation party!


josh & adam were nearly undefeated at cornhole...losing only one game!


love my brothers.. and now they are both doctors!
eric {in white} graduated with his PhD last weekend.
so proud! :oD

saturday was also mine & josh's 9th monthiversary! :o)


i can't believe it's been 9 months!
then again, i can't believe it's only been 9 months.
thank you for the past 9 months, josh! i love you!

and i think that brings us up to speed for the past few days!
hope everyone had a good weekend!

photo shoots on the beach.

Since Josh has gotten into photography and has all kinds of "gears" now, he is no longer content with having someone else take our picture. Instead, he would set up his tripod on the beach, complete with his strobe {flash} and use his little remote control to take pictures of us himself. It was always pretty entertaining for anyone sitting near us... and also renders some fantastic pictures of me while he is shooting away trying to get all the settings right.




He was about 5 seconds too late to snap the best part of this scene: when I flipped over in the hammock! I'm not sure how I did it, but when I went to get into it, it just totally flipped over! It was pretty funny... but also kind of hurt :-/

However, all of the waiting around I did while he set up the camera was definitely worth it because we got some fun pictures! :)








Josh said this was our Captain Morgan pose, but it makes me feel like we're just doing tree pose in yoga. :)

Who needs a photographer when you can just do it yourself?