From California to Massachusetts

The day had come to travel home. With Carrick flying out we left early the next morning and headed up to Cupertino. I mean if we're going to be in California, we might as well go to corporate. I told Carrick that I was going to go slightly off the grid. I didn't want the world to know when I was going to be home. I just kind of wanted to show back up to work. 

Day One: California

California is huge. So day one we never left the state! We headed up to Cupertino. This was a time to stop in at corporate and take the typical picture outside of the sign.

Typical employee photo.

From Cupertino we headed over to San Jose. I wanted to tour the Winchester Mystery House. I've always wanted to go here and if I was that close I was going! We did the Grand Estate Tour. This is actually two tours: the Mansion Tour and the Behind-the-Scenes Tour. All together you will spend about 2 1/2 hours going through this home. I highly recommend seeing this home if you are in the San Jose area!

Winchester Mystery House

 Day Two: California-Wyoming

From our night in northern California, we headed out towards Nevada. We had to go through Tahoe National Forest. This place was incredible! We were above clouds and in tons of pine trees. (I was missing the trees!) It was about 34 degrees outside when I took this picture!

Tahoe National Forest

 One of the places I really wanted to see on the way home was the Bonneville Salt Flats. This place is wild! It is huge. There are mountains around the area (I promise there are some in the background of this picture) and you could see the rain up on them. You may not believe it, but behind me in the distance is I-80. There is a highway right in the middle! I probably could have just looked at this place for hours, but Massachusetts is pretty far from Utah!

Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah

 I always thought of Utah being full of snow and a place I never wanted to go. While driving through the state I only want to go back! The state is beautiful. You can just pull off the highway and be surrounded by mountains and lakes.

Echo Reservoir, Coalville, UT

We made it into Wyoming that day. We have GoPro videos to prove it. We drove towards a storm. Somehow we never made it into the storm though.

 Day Three: Wyoming-Iowa

After getting out of Wyoming we were in Nebraska. If you've never been to Nebraska, never fear! It's flat and full of cows. You don't need to go there. It's okay.

Nebraska. This is part of the Oregon Trail.

 I did see that you could go to a Pony Express Station and we stopped. It was a quite place, but it was cool to see where people would stop on their way out west.

Pony Express Station, Gothenburg, Nebraska

I pretty much said we were not stopping until we got to Iowa. We made it to Iowa and stayed the night.

Day Four: Iowa-New York

There wasn't much to report over the next few states. We didn't stop anywhere special except at a few rest areas. This photo is from a rest area explaining Iowa's part in the Underground Railroad. I had no idea that Iowa played such a role in the Underground Railroad.

From Iowa, we went into Illinois, Indiana (where the Indy 500 was happening), Ohio (where we saw the first real city in days: Cleveland), Pennsylvania, and into New York. We stopped just outside of Buffalo for our final rest before heading home.

Day Five: New York-Massachusetts 

We were almost home. We drove through a lot of trees. Saw some silly signs from the State Police in Massachusetts. I dropped Carrick off at his car with a promise we'd see each other in a couple weeks. (This was an easy promise. We had to work together again!) From there I had about an hour drive back home. It was weird to drive back through places I had been out of for so long. I noticed some signs changed. I pulled into my driveway and ran into the house to see Thor. I had missed him a ton. He was not too happy that I had been gone, but after a few days he warmed back up to me. 

I'm glad I took this opportunity to work in a different state and step out of my comfort zone. I'm glad I took this time to see the country. I'm glad Carrick drove back with me. I know I always have another home to go to with new friends to take adventures with. 

If you ever get the chance to take a road trip, long or short, you should. You never know what you may come across.

Dinner Dates

My lovely friend Tony & I spent our lunch at work together. It was a lovely time. He's great.

Electric Run

On Friday night I went down to Gillette Stadium to be part of the Electric Run. The Electric Run is a 5k during a rave. You run/walk & enter different "lands" of electronic music.

 Even though we signed up as part of a team, none of us were together. I drove in with my friend Tony. This was his first 5k & he is a big fan of electronic music.

We walked the whole thing. It was a fun run & I wanted to take it easy after running RnR Providence. The run was fun. It was different. The only thing that I wish was a little different that in between "lands" there was a little more light & some music! Besides that the run was awesome. We got to run inside of the stadium & they had a party at the end. It was a different experience for me being used to running. I wouldn't say I wouldn't do it again, but I'm not running to sign up for another one.

Rock 'n' Roll Providence Half Marathon

This past Sunday I ran the Rock 'n' Roll Providence Half Marathon. I've never done a Rock 'n' Roll event before so I was excited to see how it all went down. The race started at 7 am & they wanted you there by 6 am. My friend Carrick came with me to spectate on his first running event. We met up with my friend Kevin & we soon realized we should get into our corrals.

Start Line

My roommate from DC was also running. We didn't get to meet up before the race, but we did end up seeing each other on the course. That was awesome & pretty unexpected. They did a wonderful job with water & gatorade every other mile & had lots of support along the course. I usually have a negative attitude towards Providence, but I did find a new respect towards the city while I was running it. The course was great. I really enjoyed running by Brown University & all the historic homes.

Foggy, but beautiful.

At one point during the run I saw the 2:30 pacer & thought maybe I can not only PR again this month, but run a sub-2:30 half! I was going to be happy to be running even if I didn't PR, but I did keep this thought in the back of my mind. The last .1 mile was on a hill. I thought this was mean, but when I got there I went faster (against Carrick's wishes) & PR'd with a final time of 2:29:29! I was super excited to have reached a sub-2:30 half! I was nervous seeing that there were hills along the course, but I don't think they were bad.

Add caption

After the half Carrick & I went to the Roger Williams Park Zoo. They are getting ready for their pumpkin bonanza. I talked more about pumpkins than the animals which is unheard of for me! The day was really fun. I'm so glad I had a supporter out there waiting for me at the end. It made me really happy to know I had that support directly at the finish.

AllState Marathon Boston 13.1

On Sunday morning I got up early & heading up to Suffolk Downs in East Boston for the AllState Marathon Boston 13.1. I don't know why they don't call it the AllState Half Marathon. I got to meet up with my friend Kevin before the race. It was nice to see a familiar face.

The race started at 7:30 am. Being used to Disney races this wasn't too early for me. The corrals were kind of a mess. Instead of setting up corrals based off an estimated time finish you had to go off of your word & enter at the time you thought you could finish in. The corrals were really tight & overcrowded. 

Once we started running I knew I wasn't feeling it. My knee was hurting pretty early on & I was just annoyed at it. We ran through a marsh reserve which was really cool. It was definitely my favorite part of the run. From there we headed towards Revere Beach. My knee stopped hurting, but I felt like the run was taking forever. Running at the beach was the only time we did any out & back areas of the course. I didn't feel like it was bad though. There was more spectators than I would have expected along the course too. 

I was pretty hungry & the finish was right near a Wendy's. Let me tell you, Wendy's has never smelled so good! I controlled my urge to run off course & buy some fast food. The finish was so close & I crossed the finish line & noticed that Nike+ had told me that I had a half marathon PR! I grabbed a water after being given my medal & heading towards my car. There was no food at the end which was kind of crappy, but it could have been worse. I love the medal that they have out too! It is one of my favorites for sure. 

When I saw my time from run it was a little bit longer than my gps had told me. I figured it wasn't an official time just yet. What really happened was when I crossed the start line it never registered. So my "official" finish time was 2:34:36. My time based off of my gps was 2:33:17. About a 3 minute PR from DC! I'm super excited about it. 

This week/weekend will be pretty busy at work. Soon I will be running the Rock 'n Roll Providence Half! 

Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend 2013

I'm back!!

Last Thursday morning I got on a plane & heading to L.A. I've never been to California so this was a first for me. My mom's friend lives out there so we also got to visit with her. We had a lot of fun. It was hot, which I love.

On Friday I went to the Expo. Being my 4th runDisney event I had an idea of what to expect at the Expo. This was quite a time though. I got to the Disneyland Hotel at around 10:20 am. I got into the line to pick up my bib. The line was long, but moved pretty quickly. Once I was out of picking up my bib I then got into line to pick up my bag & check out the Expo. Yes I had to get into a separate line to get into the Expo. My mom met me in this line. Once we got into the hotel I went over to get my shirt. We walked around to check out the exhibitors & then had to get into ANOTHER line to see the runDisney merch! I grabbed an I Did It! t-shirt & a pint glass. My mom stood in line while I checked out a few more exhibitors. Then we switched spots. I got to watch Jeff Galloway & Ali Vincent speak while standing in line. I eventually got up near the registers, grabbed a Sweaty Band & got out of there! It was about 2 hours of standing in a line.

From the Expo we went back to the hotel to meet my mom's friend & her oldest daughter. We drove up to Hollywood to take a tour. We had a great time. Hollywood gets a little crazy at night so we got out of there not too long after that.

Godney

On Saturday I went to Disney California Adventure Park with my mom. We had a great time & enjoyed walking around & seeing this part of Disneyland. We loved the Radiator Springs Racers in Cars Land. We also loved Tower of Terror! We both said we liked it more than the one at Disney World! I also really enjoyed California Screamin'. My friend Joe came down to Anaheim from Cupertino so we got to hang out at Disney together. After a little while we went back to the hotel & I set my alarm to get up to run on Sunday!



I woke up on Sunday & felt nervous. I knew my training wasn't great, but I've never felt this nervous before a run. I drove over to Disneyland. This was a much easier process than Disney World. After a quick walk I was in the parking lot near the start line. There was less entertainment than a Disney World here. I checked my bag & went over to my corral. The corral was already pretty full when I got there & they actually closed it due to too many people being put into the corral. I was still feeling super anxious so I texted my friend Christopher who reminded me I would be fine.

Start!

I finally got over my anxiety around mile 3. We ran through California Adventure first. Then we went into Disneyland. This was my first view of Disneyland. I took 2 pictures in this part.

We all have a dark side!

I could use that magic carpet!

The first time I saw Sleeping Beauty's castle I thought "It's so small!" & "Aurora got jipped!" Then we ended up on the streets of Anaheim. Anaheim is not so pretty. Disney did a good job of adding entertainment along the streets. We had hula dancers, classic cars, cheerleaders, & many other groups along the course. We ran around the Honda Center & through Angel Stadium.

 I enjoyed running through Angel Stadium more than the stadium at ESPN in Disney World for sure. I couldn't believe how good I felt by the time we got to Angel Stadium. It was hot & humid. I was feeling my knee & my hip flexors, but I still felt good. I knew I wasn't going to PR at this race. Especially being a Disney race. It's all about fun! I was really excited to see that finish line! Once I finished I got my Disneyland Half finishers medal & went over to get my Coast to Coast medal. The Coast to Coast medal is when you run a half marathon in (or the full marathon in January) at Disney World & a half marathon in Disneyland in the same calendar year. The medal is awesome.

Coast to Coast & Disneyland Half Medals!

TNT Loves!

After I got my bag I met up with a few friends that I ran with in DC with TNT. It was awesome to see them & celebrate another accomplishment with them & their friends. I started to hear that they ran out of water pretty early on during the race. This is no good. Hydration is important & even more important in warmer weather like that.

Look at us!

Joe & his friend Dave met me at the finish & we went to Disneyland! I enjoyed Space Mountain & Splash Mountain here a lot. I'm pretty sure I got wetter on Splash Mountain on Sunday than I ever have at Disney World. We grabbed dinner at Rainforest Cafe & headed over to California Adventure for a little while.







Next thing I knew it was Monday. We went to visit my mom's friend's parents in Oceanside. We took a walk on the pier. We saw a seal, pelicans, & dolphins. It was about when I stepped on a dead fish that I knew it was time to get out of there. Tuesday we had a pretty chill day & grabbed lunch. It was a nice to hang out. On Wednesday we took a trolley tour of San Diego. San Diego is really nice.

Pier at Oceanside

Thursday we had to wake up really early & head up to Hollywood. My mom's dream is to go on the Price Is Right & it was her day. It was fun. Our show airs on November 4th. Mom & I said bye to her friend & hung around The Grove for a little while. We got to the airport really early, but it gave us time to rest. We got home at around 8 am on Friday morning.

Don't tell CBS I took this photo.

I can't believe it has already been almost a week since the half. Or that it's September already! I'm running the AllState half in Boston on the 15th so this rest will be over soon.

Here's A Little Bit More From Spartan

Blind!

Some pictures are appearing from the Spartan Race on Sunday. Not only will you get dirty, but they have photographers capturing the moments!

Nate & I after going blind in the mud!

I've Been Missing...

...from the blog.

Holidays in retail are time consuming. Holidays in general are time consuming. Holidays stress me out. If you meet me during this time you'll hear "I hate Christmas" more than once before you leave. Fitting in exercise is even more stressful. I've been doing a Holiday Squat-A-Thon for the month of December. Today I did 185 for missing yesterday. There's a couple of 100 squats a day coming up. Squats don't really bother me much. I'm surprised I haven't felt it more afterwards.

Onto where I've been the past few days...

Thursday I helped a friend paint & do some stuff around his new house. Before I drove close to the end of the world (aka Plymouth), I met up with a friend to stop at Target. Our work adopted a family to give Christmas presents too. I like this part of Christmas. Helping people who need it more than you means a whole lot more than just junk you get from family. (Yes I said junk!) I'm happy that I got to participate in making 4 kids Christmases special.

Friday was my other day off last week. I decided I would be in a positive mood all day. No one was going to ruin it! I went to Wompatuck to run. I ran and ran and then ran some more. After a few near death experiences I made my way back into the park & to my car. I learned my lesson to stay off the roads near there. People are crazy! I ended up doing a little more than 10 miles. I felt like it should have been at least 5 more, but I guess not. As I ran I thought of how hungry I was & how I should of brought win snacks. Then I thought about how when I got home I'd blog about how crazy drivers are. (Remember I almost got killed multiple times.) when I got myself situated at my car I noticed a text from a friend saying something about shooting. I mean I just was in the woods/risking my life on roads. When he told me a little more about it, I couldn't believe it. Then I heard it on the radio. Then I got home to see it on the tv. I decided we'll before I got home to forget my positive attitude that day. I'm not going to go into what happened or what's wrong with the laws or any of that. I still feel sad about it. I will leave it at that.

Today being my only day off means I had to do stuff that I didn't necessarily want to do. I went to the gym. I've gone once in like 3 months. I clearly need a gym buddy STAT! The weather has been crappy & seems to be staying that way. The marathon is coming up way too soon. I'm way underprepared. I just want to finish this marathon & get on with the half in DC. I have a lot of respect for people who do marathons consistently. You guys kick ass!

I'll be letting you guys know about a TNT event soon. And another fundraiser. Hopefully both before Christmas.

Until then...

A Run Meet-up & A Football Game

A few weeks ago I met with my TNT campaign coordinator, Whitney, before work. We were meeting to talk about fundraising & just to getting to know each other. She had mentioned that the Team going to Disney for Marathon Weekend were holding a run meet-up in Lexington for the grand re-opening of the Greater Boston Running Company (or GBRC for short). So I checked my work schedule & saw that I had the day off so I said that I would go. I go in my car at 6:15 am & drove about an hour to Lexington. I was nervous getting there because I had never done a meet-up before, but figured it was a good way to get to know other people who were going to Disney in January, as well as other TNT members. I ended up running with 2 women who were going to Disney. One was doing the Goofy Challenge & the other was doing the half. For those reading this & saying "What the heck is the Goofy Challenge!?!" let me explain. On Saturday these runners get up hours before the sun to run the half marathon. The next day they do it again to run the full marathon! You get a special medal for doing both. You can also spot these people out of a crowd. They are limping & in pain, but smiling the whole time. They will usually wear all 3 medals the rest of Sunday so you can hear them before you see them. (FYI-the medals are not light. I've read that wearing them is worse then the pain from running!)

Look at those medals!

Anyways one woman & I did 6 miles so we split off from the woman doing the Goofy Challenge & headed by to the GBRC. It was really nice to run with someone (which I normally do not do) & talk about whatever we wanted. In the end, we did 6.22 miles. For the first time ever I ran 2.5 miles without stopping. The longest I ever did was 2 miles & said never again. (I'm a big promoter of the run/walk method.)

After I left Lexington I was then en route to meet my friend Chris for the Harvard-Yale football game.

If you know me personally, you know I'm not a football fan. I actually hate it. So this was a strange day for me all around. I parked at the Cambridgeside Galleria & took the train to Harvard. (I also can't parallel park, so I need a parking garage to get me through. Especially when weekend pricing is $3.99!)  I met up with Chris & we walked throughout Harvard before heading over to the game. After eating a hot dog (which was better than we could ever imagine and way cheaper than anywhere else!) we went to sit down. I critiqued most of the stuff that doesn't matter too much. (Like how Harvard cheerleaders kind of suck. Sorry!) We left before the end of the game to get some late lunch/early dinner & to beat the crowd out. Harvard did beat Yale. (Go team!) We ended up taking silly pictures in Harvard.

Chris & I in front of the John Harvard statue.

We may have went into a classroom & wrote on the chalkboard (there may or may not be pictures of this.) Before leaving Harvard Square we made our way to Pinkberry. We then went our separate ways to our homes. I was exhausted by the end of it & had a long day at work the next day.

I guess the next time I write it'll be about Thanksgiving & the Second Helping Challenge.

Stay tuned!

My Life as a Runner (So Far)

A few years ago I thought running was crazy. Living just outside of Boston means every April people from all over the world show up to run 26.2 miles. A few years ago I went into Boston with my ex & we watched a little of the marathon. I saw people of all ages running this race. It made me think about how some of these people were 3x as old as I was! I couldn't run a mile. I wouldn't even think about it! So it was right then that I decided if they can do 26.2 miles I surely can do a 5k! (Then I probably questioned how long a 5k was.) I then signed up to do the 5k during the 2010 Disney Marathon Weekend. I had a friend doing the half so I would have a roommate & supporter. (I still though she was crazy running 13.1 miles.) A 5k was pretty easy. Not a huge deal, but it was an accomplishment for me.

Here we are at the finish!

It was a few months later that I thought I want to accomplish 7 things before I turn 30. (Being 23 that gave me 1 accomplishment a year.) I said I wanted to do a half marathon and a full marathon. I even thought I was crazy during this time.

Rewind to this past January. I found myself back in Disney World during Marathon Weekend. I had a full weekend of running. On Friday morning I was standing alone in the dark and cold waiting for the 5k to begin. I was not worried about this by any means. It was the rest of the weekend that was scary to me. The next day I was running my first half marathon. Could I do this? Was I crazy? I can remember getting out of the Magic Kingdom thinking people who do this all the time are crazy. I don't want to do this ever again. I finished. It may have taken me 3:21:55, but I finished. I was excited & proud of myself. I could feel my right knee getting sore, so after a little while I chose to go back to the hotel to ice it before meeting up my mom & our friends for fun in the Magic Kingdom. On Sunday I was awake at around 3 am again to be part of the Marathon Relay. I knew I was in trouble though. My left knee was in a lot of pain. (Yes left knee which was fine the day before!) I was okay walking on so I figured I needed to just warm up a little bit. I was runner #2 during the relay, so I got to go through the Animal Kingdom & Disney Hollywood Studios before returning to Epcot for the finish. Even though we had to be at the runner #2 area at the same time as the first runner, we spent a couple hours just sitting around in a parking lot. I was really nervous for this half marathon. After finding Andrea (my relay partner) I was off on another 13.1 miles. I tried to do a run-walk ratio of 1 minute running, 2 minute walking. I knew I wouldn't be able to do this. I tried 30 seconds of running, 2 minutes of walking. Still I could not do this. I was getting discouraged big time. I even thought about quitting more than I would like to admit during the entire thing. I knew I couldn't let myself or Andrea down though! Being the second runner & being towards the beginning of the pack of marathoners was a little nerve racking. I mean here I was walking! Even when I had a few miles left I wanted to quit. Around the Beach Club I got the push I needed for a complete stranger. Behind my sunglasses were tears & thoughts of failure. I just happened to look at this complete stranger. She looked at me & gave me a thumbs up with a head nod. That was it. It was what I needed to finish. After forcing myself to run to the finish line I did finish. There may have been tears, but I did it! Fast forward 3:38:54 I was getting my medal & hobbling to the bus while calling my mom saying I need ice & lunch meet me in the lobby! I said I would never do that again. Goal accomplished. Then I signed up for the Disney Marathon. My training hasn't been awesome, but I'm not scared of a half marathon now. I'm working towards it. I'm listening to my body & getting support by people I never thought possible.

A weekend of running!

This blog isn't just about my story towards completing a marathon, but my story of doing another half marathon for a reason. I'm running the Nike Women's Half Marathon in DC with Team in Training. Raising money is scary to me then any amount of miles. Here I am helping other people. The official training hasn't really begun yet, but I will be meeting some other members on Saturday as they prepare for the Disney Marathon! I'll fill you in on what Team in Training is. Team in Training works with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. By signing up for an endurance event you are also raising money that goes directly to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. For this half marathon I have pledged to raise $2,900. I have already raised $775 thanks to generous friends, family, & co-workers. Any donation amount to any cause is helpful. I know $1 doesn't seem like a lot, but If 100 people all donated $1 that would equal $100. That helps more than we think about.

If you would like to donate to my cause here is the link:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/ma/nikewhlf13/nnew5066

I will also be holding fundraising events over the next couple of months. Keep an eye out for that.