I'm Back, Baby!

I am officially BACK.  On Sunday, along with several dozen of my friends and thousands of strangers, I ran the "Donna" Breast Cancer Half Marathon.  This was my redemption race post-hysterectomy, and I came back with a bang!

Donna is a race my friends and I have been doing for the last four years because it's awesome - it's a 13.1 mile party with amazing spectators, lots of "beverages" and fun times to be had by all, so I can't think of a better race to make my return to racing.

We flew into Jacksonville on Friday, and Mel and I got to meet our "running guru," Jeff Galloway and chat with him for a few minutes!  He claims to remember us from several events he's done with the Dallas PGL's, but he's also a really nice guy and would probably say that anyway.

Mel & me with Jeff!

Saturday was a bum around the beach kind of day with lots of time with good friends, good food, and good drinks.  We relaxed, walked in the surf, and prepped for the run the next day.

Friends!

View from our balcony

Booze!

                       

Sunday morning, race morning, dawned foggy and slightly chilly (for Florida).  We welcomed the overcast skies as the forecast was for a warm and clear day, which makes for rough running conditions.  The good news is that we weren't taking the race seriously - we were all about the fun, with planned picture, "beverage," and snack stops along the route.

My awesome group of friends pre-race

I'd been training using an interval of 15 second run / 45 second walk, so the plan was just to continue with that and see how it was going.  We had a ton of fun running, and met friends old and new along the course.  

Old friends!

New friends (left) we met on course!

Friendly strangers!

The tough spot is always the last few boring miles heading to the Mayo Clinic, over a huge causeway bridge, but we kept up my run/walk intervals the whole way to the top and stopped to take a quick picture at the crest of the hill.

Mile 12 at the top of the bridge!

We finished strong with a 3:20, which was an over 30 minute course PR for me!

Texas ladies together!

Finished!

 

Then we continued our tradition of using the Atlantic Ocean as a post-race ice bath and consuming even more "beverages," lol. 

Bayou Rum punch bucket!

Ocean ice bath!

10th anniversary medal

I am SO happy to be back to racing and really looking forward to my upcoming spring full of great races and what I know will be more great times with friends!

2016: The Year in Review

Photo credit: https://www.nraila.org/articles/20161223/2016-nra-ila-year-in-review

So, it's been almost a year since I posted here, talking about New Year's Goals.  I'd like to tell you I met that goal of 500 miles in 2016.  But I know I didn't - I don't even have my total mileage to tell you how close (or how far away) I came.  My year was that...interesting.

I ran two halfs in the spring, and skipped a couple races throughout the year (sometimes DNS is the best decision you can make).  I surprised myself and ran an "official" Disney time (sub-3:30) at the Star Wars Dark Side Half in April after committing to my training plan and taking off almost 20 lbs, so that was awesome.  

I had surgery in May (hello hysterectomy, goodbye uterus & all of your complications!) and despite my best intentions of not letting pounds pile on during recovery....they crept back on, and brought some of their friends with them.  Sigh.  And having to defer a summer race I'd been looking forward to was not awesome, but at least it's giving me something to look forward to next year!

The absolute highlight of my year was the birth of this little dude in early June!  My nephew is the cutest thing EVER, and I'm loving my new role as Aunt Jenny, and the ability to spoil him like crazy (and then give him back, lol)!!!!

The real downer of the year is that my family has been dealing with some pretty serious struggles throughout the fall, and all the stress and associated travel seriously impacted my training (basically non-existent) and all the stress eating packed on even more pounds than before!!!  Insert even bigger sigh here.

After watching/cheering on friends and family struggling through the Marine Corps Marathon in October, I found some new motivation and decided to turn around my own struggles and work towards my personal goals again - I wasn't waiting for New Year's to set them this time around.

I'm glad to say that I'm back down to what, at one point, had been my "all-time-highest-weight-ever" (before I started running and lost weight, then put it all back on), and I've had some really GREAT runs recently.  Which probably means I'm due for a stinker of a run soon, but it's amazing how good you feel when you've been struggling for several years and finally can feel yourself turning a corner.

2017's got some BIG plans coming up: I'm already registered for 5 halfs, and that will mean 4 new states, and lots of fun trips with my running peeps and my family.  So here's hoping I'll be able to maintain the momentum and motivation I've gained the past couple months and translate those into a really great year!

New Goals...New Hope???

Okay, it's a brand new year.  2016.  People are making New Years Resolutions and setting new goals.  I'm not big on resolutions, but I do like goals.

I recently realized I didn't set any finite goals for 2015...and looking back on my year, it definitely shows a lack of focus, for sure.  Without motivation, I piled on even more unnecessary weight, my eating habits went to he**, and my running "training" (if you can even call it that) slacked off terribly.  About the only area of my life where I can say I truly found success all year long was in my work life - which is awesome - but it's definitely time to start focusing on ALL OF ME again.

Ok. Soooooo....   My running friends and I are discussing setting the "2016 in 2016" goal for groups of us.  I figure my contribution can safely, and should be, at least 500 miles.  This is a personal goal I had set for the last several years and I like having a number to work towards all year long.

So there it is.  500 miles in 2016.  Plus of course, the standard "lose weight," "eat better,"  "keep up with the blog," ... yadah yadah yadah.  All of which will be important, but for the beginning of the year I'm going to strictly re-focus on getting my training back on track and then let the rest follow.  Lots of hope attached to this one.

Dumbo in Pictures

DisneyLand 10K

DisneyLand Half Marathon

The bling

2015 WDW Marathon Weekend Races in Pictures

I'll spare y'all the details of my lackluster races...long story short - I got to see and spend time with great friends and family, both during and outside of the races, and I earned awesome bling, which were my two real goals for the weekend.  So, to make things less boring, I'm just doing a weekend recap in pictures...

At the Expo on Thursday morning

My 10K outfit - Mary Poppins inspired

Dad & me before the 10K on Friday morning

  

Some of the group before the Half Saturday morning - it was cold!

My Half Marathon outfit - Minnie

Nikki & Me in front of Cinderella's Castle

My bling from the 10K & Half

We saw a bride arrive at the Wedding Chapel

Tea @ The Grand Floridian Saturday post-race

CheEARed for friends and family during the Full Marathon on Sunday morning

Day at Magic Kingdom with the family on Monday

Photo Recap of the Double Weekend

FIRST ...  SPRINGFIELD, IL

The group in front of Lincoln's Home.

BFF & me with the Lincoln statue at the Illinois Capitol Building

Lincoln group pre-race (It was freezing that morning!)

RP, Nikki, and me finishing Lincoln.

Lincoln group post-race in front of the old state capitol building.

Nikki and me, post-race in Springfield.

Lincoln medal! 

AND NOW...ST. LOUIS!

"Holy Hill" on the Go! St. Louis course means you get a sprinkling of holy water from a priest at the beginning of the ~2 mile hill!

RP, Nikki, and me post-race in St. Louis.

St. Louis group post-race.

Go! St. Louis medal.

The two races together.

Being touristy - going to see the Gateway Arch!

 Going up in the arch!

Building our version of the arch at the St. Louis Science Center.