The First Monday of 2016

Happy Monday all!

I started today with a work out. This was great. Okay so the workout was a little rough, but I did my best.

After working out I headed to work. Work was pretty good. It's a nice break from the craziness of the holiday season.

My team had a meeting. Listening to the meeting made me feel kind of sad, kind of bad, kind of confused, but also the need to talk to someone. I talked with one of my managers and went over how I've been feeling. It was good to talk about it and know I'm not the worst at work. (Not that I thought I was, but just in general the bad feelings that have lived inside lately.) I won't lie, there were tears. I mean I don't talk to anyone so it makes sense.

I'm hoping that I regain some spark over the next few months.

First Sunday of 2016

My day started off kind of sad. I had some bad dreams which set the mood for the day. 

The day overall was good though. Work wasn't super busy. 

I made the decision to drive to California in March. I'm excited to see the country. Nervous to go out there. It'll be an adventure.

Then I went to the gym. I'm glad I got to go and run before they closed. I miss running.

Now I'm watching Home. I never finished it. It's cute. Funny. 

Day 2

Today felt alright. 

I was tired. Not surprising. I was up a little late last night binge watching Grey's Anatomy. 

I felt okay. I don't know how to explain what okay feels like, but you just do. Maybe it's more like content? 

I ate some awesome cheese fries! They were great. Maybe I shouldn't be happy I had such bad food, but I couldn't have wanted anything else.

I'm going to spend my night watch The Martian. I just finished the book a few days ago. I should probably see one of the best movies of 2015 sooner or later.

Speaking of books, I put out a goal on Goodreads to read 36 books in 2016. I wanted to read 24 in 2015 and read more than that. I don't force myself to read certain things, or new books, or whatever.  I let myself read whatever. Maybe it's book I've read 100 times already. Maybe it's history. Or a mystery. Or a love story. Or a graphic novel. I just let myself read.

So I'm currently reading The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (or J.K. Rowling as you may be more familiar with).

Until tomorrow...

It's a New Year

It's a new year.

It feels like yesterday that 2015 was starting. And at the same time 2015 felt like it never ended. 

I was thinking of resolutions. You know the silly things that you throw out the window by day 3. I try to not give myself resolutions. (We all want to lose 5 pounds or stop eating junk food. Save money. Whatever. We all do it.)

This year I thought of something else though. 

This blog started as a way to talk about my running. And the charities I was running for. At some point during the last year I lost that love of running. I thought it was due to our bad winter, but even the good weather didn't change anything. A lot of times I run from myself. And the feelings that I have. 

So my resolution this year is to: 

Write everyday how I feel. I'm hoping this helps me with my anxiety and depression. It's been awful this past year. And I don't want to do it anymore. 

This isn't going to be pretty. Some things aren't going to have much detail. 

So today. 

How'd I feel today? 

I felt a lot today. 

I was partially nervous knowing this is what I was going to put out there. Even though I don't know who would ever read this. It's still scary. 

I felt happy. Getting to spend some time with friends during my shift and at lunch. 

I felt pissed. There's some underlying things happening. I won't get into detail based off of what it is. But it makes me mad. 

I felt sad. This kind of goes with the losses thing. 

I felt let down. (See above. Get what I'm trying to say?)

Maybe I'll feel the same tomorrow? I can only imagine that some things will still be there. Maybe things will be a little different. We'll have to see tomorrow. 

Bobby Doyle Summer Classic & a Clam Bake

On Sunday I ran in the Bobby Doyle Summer Classic in Narragansett, RI. I participated in this run last year and really enjoyed it. Narragansett is about an hour and a half from me. Packet pick-up is the day of the race so you have to get there early enough to get your bib number and shirt. The run starts at 9 so we left at around 6:45 to get there in plenty of time. There were a ton of people there when we got there. They really love this race. After finding my bib number I headed into the school to get my bib and my shirt and use the bathroom before the run started.

I didn't discuss my goals for the race except in my own head. Last year I ended up getting sick during the run so that was something I didn't want to go through again. My goal was to beat my time from last year (1:00:18). I started out doing 3:1 intervals. Between mile 1 and mile 2 my right knee started to hurt. I knew I went out to fast and due to lack of training I was not prepared for that. I switched my timer to 2:1 intervals and just kept going. The sky was gray and it was windy this year which kept the temp down. I felt pretty good (besides my knee) the whole race. While I was running I kept going back and forth with this man. (His name was Al because a lot of people were yelling his name.) At one point he was ahead of me. I could always see him, but I told myself to finish in front of him. As we were just about to turn the corner to head to the finish back at the school I got ahead of him and really pushed to the finish. I finished in 56:36.

This years medal!

After the run we headed to Nate's parent's house in Falmouth for a clam bake. (I was having chicken as I don't eat clams or lobsters.) Nate & I ended up taking a nap for a little bit while we were there. I found a CSI: Miami marathon so I got caught up in that. We had a ton of food which was all good. Nate's sister made us all wear lobster hats, which we all just kept on and felt normal in by the end.

Thanks Jess!

And I can officially say that I will be going back to California in May to participate in the Tinker Bell Half Marathon Weekend! 

I'll be participating in the 5k and the Pixie Dust Challenge (the 10k and the half).  I'm excited to head back to California! I want to explore Disneyland more and maybe even meet up with some friends out there. 

The Color Run

On Sunday I finally got to be part of The Color Run. I've wanted to do this run for years, but never had anyone else to do it with. A few girls at work were up to do it, so we formed a team. The run was at Patriot Place in Foxboro. The forecast was calling for rain so we were hoping that it would off until we were done. (Spoiler: it did!)

As you can see you start off really clean and by the end you are covered in colors. It was not super easy to get the color off, but not super hard either. This years theme was Shine, so there was a silver powder with sparkles in it. I'm still finding sparkles all over the place! That seemed to be the hardest to get off. I did bring baby wipes to clean what I could before the drive home. I'm so glad that we got to do this run and as a group! I don't think I would ever do this run alone, but with others absolutely! You have so much fun! I will definitely be doing this run again in the future.

Expedition Everest Challenge

This post is long overdue. Sorry for that.

Last month I was back in Disney for the Expedition Everest Challenge! I've always wanted to do this race and this was the last year that it was being offered. Leading up to the race we had very little communication from runDisney. (I actually only saw the race information on the website one day when I was looking for something else.)

Let's start with the expo. The only information about the expo that we received was that it was at the Animal Kingdom on Friday or Saturday. We went to the Animal Kingdom for breakfast at Tusker House on Friday which allowed us time to go get our stuff after that. On the bus there were other people who were running who were not sure where to go either. No one really seemed to know where to go, but we would figure it out. The expo was actually in the parking lot. Usually I take pictures of the expo, but this was so sad that I couldn't even bring myself to do that. The only good part was the quickness of the whole process. There was one tent where we picked up our bibs and shirts.

Then you could buy the I Did It! shirt, pin (same as the pre-order), a lanyard that said runDisney, and a runDisney hat. I picked up another pin and the I Did It! shirt. New Balance was there with the shoes that they released in January. Good Sense was also there handing out samples and coupons. That was it. There was nothing else.

The next day we took it easy until it was time to head back to Animal Kingdom for the race. We got there really quickly and had plenty of time to hang around and take pictures and sign the wall.

 Soon we were at the starting line ready to get our run on!

Along the course there were a few character stops including Chip and Dale and Timon. We didn't stop for anything, but kept going. The first obstacle was jumping over hay barrels. The next obstacle was the tires. This wasn't too bad. I hadn't been drinking enough water while on vacation so I was feeling the humidity really bad. I just kept going though. The final obstacle was going under a net. None of the obstacles were that bad and broke up the run nicely. Soon the 5k was over. (I'm not the only one I saw notice this, but the run was not even 3 miles.)

Once we finished the 5k we got a water, a cold towel, a sharpie with flashlight, and our first clue. 

This was not easy and everyone seemed to have issues. I still am slightly confused about it. As you can see I have lots of numbers on the card. 

The second clue was slightly easier. Or at least I thought so until I saw someone say the answer the carabineer. I'm not sure what happened with my answer, but the guy gave us clue 3 with my jumbled letters.

Carrick was really good at this clue. I just starred at it like it might come to me. Once he said "Mountaineers" it made a lot more sense. 

Clue 4 was also a little strange to me. I tried saying it out loud, but it wasn't exactly happening. I can understand how it becomes elevation, but not really speaking it too much.

Clue 5 was a little better for me! A crossword! Much better. We had to find the words a certain number of times before we could find the answer to this clue. (Keep in mind I had a wrong answer!) Luckily I could start seeing some words forming from the other letters that were not circled. 

I understood that there was a hidden yeti at the finish. In reality we got to the finish and figured out that we needed to hold up the hidden yeti. On the back of the second clue there was a yeti that we needed to hold up to get to the finish line.

Soon we had our medals and were heading to the after party. The medals are really cool. You can open the medal and it is a compass. I do wish there was something to show that it was the last Expedition Everest Challenge, but I love the medal regardless. 

We didn't stay super long at the after party. We did ride Expedition Everest. That ride is so much better at night. It was like riding it for the first time all over again. 

I hope that runDisney brings a similar run back one day. This was a great run for all ages.