It's April!

Somehow I lost track of March...and February. Whoops!

Let's take a look back at February and how I did with my goals.

• Write down good days, memories, and experiences.
• I've added some good memories into my jar. 
• Train for the Chicago Marathon.
• Training is going to be starting soon! I should look into this more.
• Drink more water.
• I had a lot of 0 oz of water this month. I gotta get better at this.
• Workout at least 3x a week.
• I did a lot of working out this month. We had a fitness challenge at work which did help. I ended in the top 5!
• Take a class at the gym at least 1x a week.
• I did great at this! I took at least one class a week, but mostly I did at least 2 classes a week. 
• Write in my 5-Year Journal.
• I've completed every day. Some days I might have filled out days I got caught up in my normal life and had to go back, but that's okay!
• Journal more.
• This wasn't great, but it's better than not at all. Got to keep working on this.
• Donate to a cause at least 1x a month.
• I donated to 3 causes and one cause twice. My work was also doing a 2:1 matching for the month of February so each charity got my donation plus 2x the donation amount. It was great.
• See new places.
• I didn't go anywhere special in February. There's still a lot of time left in the year to do this though!
• Read 40 books by the end of 2017.
• I read 3 books in February. This brought my total at the end of February to 9!

How about March? How did I do for March?

• Write down good days, memories, and experiences.
• I've added some good memories into my jar. I had a great time with some friends which helped.
• Train for the Chicago Marathon.
• I'm starting to look at training plans. This is daunting for sure!
• Drink more water.
• I was doing really well. Until the end of the month I was drinking a lot of water. I need to keep up on this!
• Workout at least 3x a week.
• I worked out a lot this month. Using my breaks at work to walk around was really helpful. 
• Take a class at the gym at least 1x a week.
• I didn't go to a class at least once a week. I skipped yoga more than once this month, but they were for good reasons. I got to get back in the swing of things with this.
• Write in my 5-Year Journal.
• I completed every day in March! Yay!
• Journal more.
• I wrote twice last month. I need to do better
• Donate to a cause at least 1x a month.
• I donated to 4 charities this month. I'm glad that I can help others who need it.
• See new places.
• I didn't travel anywhere new, but I did go to the Flower and Garden Show. That counts right?
• Read 40 books by the end of 2017.
• I read 7 books in March! It felt good to read more this month. This brought my total at the end of March to 16!

We're only 4 days into April and I'm feeling good about how I'm doing on these goals. Until next time.....

A Look Back On January

I kind of hate resolutions. They're so easy to skip out on and ignore. We've all done it. On New Year's Eve I wrote down a few things I wanted to do for 2017. I figure I should look back on last month and see how I've done.

• Write down good days, memories, experiences.
• I bought a container that I can add in little notes about great things. I add them in regularly. I want to look back at the end of the year to see how my year went.

• Train for the Chicago Marathon.
• This one hasn't begun yet. But I am training for a half right now and missed 1 run due to a snow storm, but made sure to get a walk in that day.

• Drink more water.
• I was really good at keep track of how much water I drank the entire month. I really let this go and could feel the difference. A lot of days I drank more than 20 oz of water. (That's not a ton, but it's better than 0 oz like I was doing before.)

• Workout at least 3x a week.
• I exercised EVERY SINGLE DAY. It varied from day to day, but I got out there and at least walked on my breaks at work or did small work outs at home. 5 minutes is better than 0 minutes!

• Take a class at the gym at least 1x a week.
• The first week of January I was sick, so I didn't go to the gym at all. I did take 5 classes at the gym. I started going to a pilates class on Monday nights and I really enjoy it.

• Write in my 5-Year Journal daily.
• I've been really good about this. I think I might have missed a day and had to fill it in after. This book can be started on any day of the year and asks you one questions a day. You have a few lines and can see how it changes over the next 5 years.

• Journal more.
• I wrote a little bit in my personal journal and once on this blog. I could do better at this for sure.

• Donate to a cause at least once a month.
• I'm a huge Harry Potter fan. When I heard of the Hogwarts Running Club I was pumped! You can participate in virtual runs and they donate most of your registration to charity. They also recommend using Charity Miles to help even more. Their motto is #domoregood. When I signed up for their latest run, $21 went to the Limbs for Life Foundation which is an organization to help get prosthetics to people who would not be able to afford it otherwise.

• See new places.
• There's so many places in Massachusetts I've never seen. I let this option be as small or big as it could be. I traveled to Cold Springs, NY to visit family. I also went to Lynnfield, MA and indulged in some of the North Shore Mall in Peabody, MA for work-related tasks. (See even a mall can be a new place!)

• Read at least 40 books by the end of the year.
• I read 6 books by the end of January. You can see them on this page.

I've done pretty good in January. February I can see where I need to work on already. It's all about progress!

NYC Marathon

I woke up at around 4 am on Sunday. I was tired. It was kind of cold. The clocks had changed. (Had they changed!?! I hope they changed!) I could hear the wind. (Freaking wind!) I took a quick shower to wake up and get a little warm. I needed to be at Central Park South by 6 am to catch the bus. The bus to Staten Island!

Walking through Times Square was so weird at 5 am. There were runners going in all different directions to get get their transportation to the start. I was told that it didn't matter which bus I got on so I hoped on the bus in front of me and in about 15 minutes we started to move. I fell asleep on the bus for a few minutes and before I knew it we were on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge! We got off the bus just after 7 am and I made my way through security and found the charity village. Once there we were met with strong winds. We stayed as warm as possible while waiting for our waves to be called. I was in wave 4. I wasn't starting the marathon until 10:55 am. The 4 hours actually went by pretty quickly. Suddenly our wave was called. I made my way to the green corral and lined up by the letter D.

Party wave!!!!

All the sudden the beginning of the marathons was happening! The first 2 miles were on the bridge. I was on the lower level of the bridge which blocked the GPS signal to my watch. I wasn't too concerned with it except I couldn't quite use my pace bracelet. The wind on the bridge was CRAZY! I was literally getting pushed towards the median! 

Start line!

Fort Wadsworth with Manhattan in the back!

Once off the bridge we were in Brooklyn. (I happen to love Brooklyn and was excited to run through it!) I took everything in while running and just appreciated everyone who was out there supporting the runners. I tried to find a friend around mile 8, but didn't see him.



I remember mile 8 a little too well. I was really feeling it at that point. I think that I just hadn't eaten enough while I was waiting, but who knows. My pace was dropping and hard. I knew that I could only do my best and kept pushing through. I was excited when I got to the Queensboro Bridge because I knew that I was going to finish. Nate also surprised me at the end of the bridge. I wasn't expecting to see him out on the course so I was excited. I remember telling him I just wanted to be done and that everything was hurting. First Ave seemed like forever. It is a straight shot and you can just see for miles. This made it hard to keep positive and moving in general.

When I got back into Manhattan I got my groove back. I was able to keep a better pace and up with my intervals. I can remember seeing Central Park in the distance and feeling like it took forever to get there.
Once I got into the park it was a wonderful feeling of knowing I was going to be done soon!

Soon I could see the finish line. Then I saw the tracking map and ran over it. When I looked up at the finish banner I saw it change to "Thank You, Charity Runners!" It seemed fitting for sure. I checked the app and saw that I finished in 6:05:57.

You are so welcome!

I walked up got my medal and started to cry. Why did I cry? I was happy. I was happy to be done. I was happy to have made it. I was happy that the hardest thing I've ever done was over. I was happy to get out of the wind and cold. (I didn't know that it would take me over an hour to get back to the hotel. Who decided all of this walking pre- and post-race was worth it!?!) I was crying out of relief. I just needed to cry. Then I cried because I couldn't get my bottle of water open. Then the flip top didn't open enough and that really pushed me from annoyed to pissed. I could have just grabbed water off of my belt, but I'm too stubborn for that. Finally I got my finishers poncho and it was the best thing ever! It is so warm! (I can wear it now that I'm home on the reg right?)

I'm not sleeping. I'm just laying, in a poncho.

There were 50, 564 finishers.
And I was one of them!

It hit me today (which is Wednesday the 5th) that I finished the NYC Marathon. Did I finish? Yes. Did I finish in under 6 hours? No, but the wind was a wench so I can let that go. Maybe one day I'll complete a marathon in 5:30 (which was my goal pace). Honestly I'm fine never doing a marathon again. Given the opportunity, sure I'll do it.

As of right now at 8 pm on Wednesday November 5 I have raised $3,685 for Children's Hospital! There is a few more donations coming through so I should have at least $3,700! I can't believe I got that much money for such a wonderful cause! If you didn't get an opportunity to donate or would like to donate again you can do so right here!

A Challenge and an Update!

Let me start with a recap of my week, then we'll get into my runs today.

Monday: 4 mile run, 20 min yoga

Tuesday: 15 min legs with 3 lb weights, 1 hour yoga

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: 4.13 miles

Friday: 15 min of core, .5 mile walk, dancing 

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: 17.2 mile run

On Friday night I went to into Boston to see Katy Perry. This is my 3rd time seeing her, so I was obviously excited to see her again. There have been lots of reviews for the Prismatic Tour and I haven't seen one bad word about the show. She plays her hits and some stuff off the new album. There were different sections of the show, each with their own theme. You couldn't get bored watching it with so many set and costume changes. I think the Cat-oure section was my favorite. If you know Katy Perry, you know she loves cats and always incorporates them into her show.

The Hyper Neon section was great too. It had a 90s vibe and she wore a green wig. This is when she played her single "Birthday" and balloons fell all over the audience. They chose a fan from the audience to go up on stage if their birthday was in the month that the show was. 

Fan brought up for "Birthday".

She got carried by balloons as well.  

She ended with "Firework" which is always amazing to see. And yes, there were fireworks.

Today I got up early and drove up to Rockport, MA for the Triple Threat Challenge. At 9 am I started with 1 mile run. I was back for about 10 minutes before the 5k started at 9:20. I had 15 minutes before the start of the half at 10:15. This left me with no time to use the bathroom (the lines were a little long with such a short time in between runs). My right knee started giving me a little issue during the 5k so I used some BioFreeze on it while I waited for the start of the half. My legs were definitely feeling it at this point. I hadn't trained for this long of a run as of now so I knew it wasn't going to be perfect. The course had hills, which I was expecting. Just after the turn around point in Gloucester, there was a hill from hell. I swear it was so steep I was angry. At one point during the run I had to tell myself to stop being so hard on myself and just do my best. I was just tired and in pain. Luckily I pulled myself out of it. It was hard for me to find a good interval to run at, so I had to keep changing the pace. I was actually surprised with my finish time for the half. Here's the results:

1 Mile: 9:47

5k: 34:56

Half: 2:45:36

Total: 3:28:04

The race was really good. I enjoyed the views along the way. 

 The volunteers along the course were wonderful. Everyone was happy and cheered us along. We may have not had as much support from spectators, but there were a lot of people who came out from their homes to cheer us on which was nice. Considering I was there all day I did notice that before I finished that the sponsors were already packed up and leaving. This was kind of disappointing that people in the back of the pack didn't receive all the same things that the faster runners did. The course was still open for a least 30 more minutes if not more when I finished. There has been a lot of people speaking out about how slower runners miss out on things. This was the first time that I have personally experienced it.






CJ goes in to get surgery on his ear again tomorrow. As of today I've raised $1,235 for Children's Hospital. All money raised goes directly to the hospital to help kids like CJ. If you would like to donate you can do so here.

#newyearnewyou

Earlier today Coach Laura (meet her here at Fuck Skinny) posted an article about a photographer who took a picture a day of things she was grateful for to change her outlook on life. (Read it here)

I think that this is a lovely idea. So let me do two: one for today and one for yesterday.

January 1

Relax

January 2

As much of a brat he can be,
I wouldn't ask for another boy.