Monday Funday and a Winner

OK… I know I sound like a broken record… but I seriously have NO TIME!!! < That just made me think of the Dish commercial! haha! Please tell me you know what I’m talking about?! Click the picture below if you don’t and it’ll take you to youtube to watch it!

Anyways, I have a few fun things to share with you all! (besides the Dish Hopper commercial!) I’m gonna tell you using the cliff notes version ;) Maybe next week you’ll get some actual blog posts from me that are more than just bullet points and cliff notes!  I have a week break from my aide job and will only be working 15 hours at my other job! :) yippee!!! :)

Fun Thing #1:

I got some new clothes! :)  I had so many coupons and a gift card and only paid about 1/3 of the full price! That’s a deal if you ask me! :)

Fun Thing #2:

I joined another yoga challenge on Instagram! It’s called the #fallinlovewithyoga challenge. I enjoy the challenge since I am not running right now! Today is Day 1 and the theme is “beautiful”… Dancer Pose makes me feel beautiful even after a sweaty workout! :) I’m still trying to figure this whole yoga thing out as I’m relatively new to it… so if you’ve been doing yoga please tell me how to improve my form!! Especially speak up if you know the proper hand placement on my foot! ;)  I guess I could just google it, but asking you is so much more fun! ;)

Fun Thing #3:

Yeah… this is happening! lol… (maybe) I’ve been told that it will still be fun even if I just walk it…What do you think? It’s going to be really hard for me to go to a race and be with all those runners and NOT run!  That’s why it’s a maybe… I won a free entry back in May so I’m already registered… I’ll keep you posted on my final decision!  But it looks fun!  Wish I had someone to go with!  Anyone in Columbus this weekend? ;)

And now the reason I know you are all here anyways… the winner of the Reebok Spartan Race Entry giveaway

Congrats Greg!! Please send me an email and I will get you your free entry code!! :)

Remember, even if you didn’t win, you can still get a race registration discount code! Just click here!

Women’s Running Magazine Half Marathon Race Recap Part 4: The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

 

In case you missed the other parts of my LONG race recap/mini vacation report let me refresh you!

Part 1:  Traveling and the Expo
Part 2:  Before the Race
Part 3:  The Race

Also, I had posted about something very saddening that I saw while I was getting ready to leave the race:

ANY day can be thanksgiving!  Click HERE to read the post.

After I took an ice bath and shower and ate some lunch, my parents and I decided to go to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. I loved how the windows were like the keys of a piano! so cool!

 

These were some quotes on the outside of the building before you got to the stairs.  You can click the image to make it larger.

 

Here are pictures from inside the museum:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

My dad had said that he wanted to meet Elvis while we were in Nashville and we saw this:

So my dad got his picture taken with Elvis for proof that he met him! haha

    

This is the huge wall of records… there were TONS more I couldn’t get in the picture!

 

The Hall of Fame:

 

Then my dad dressed in his nicest cowboy get up (in the gift shop):

 

After we left, we walked around downtown Nashville for a little bit and saw the Ryman Auditorium but it was getting late, my legs and feet were killing me and we were all tired and hungry so we headed to Red Lobster (all 3 of our favorite restaurant) and called it a day!  What a fun day it had been!

The next day, Sunday, my mom and I headed down to the free hotel breakfast and ate waffles and fruit and muffins… yum!  We took my dad a plate back to our room and then we finished packing and headed back to Ohio.  We hit some traffic right before crossing over from Kentucky to Cincinnati and went about 6 miles in an hour!  I once again whined to my dad that I had to pee.  He told me that we had passed a PortaKleen truck about 5 minutes ago so it was probably just a few feet back and I could go hitch a ride.  Which was funny, and even though I knew the traffic was so bad we weren’t gonna move, there was no way I was gonna ask the driver if I could use the toilet on the back of his truck! haha!

We ended our mini vacation with dinner at one of my parent’s favorite pizza places and my aunt and uncle had said they would join us there.  We didn’t stop all the way back, so when I tried to get out and move my legs, I seriously had issues! lol, i was so sore and I felt like an old woman trying to get my legs to work!  The pizza and salad were amazing and we couldn’t have ended the vacation any better way!

BEST VACATION EVER!!! 

Ok, maybe not ever but I haven’t been on vacation in forever so it was pretty much an amazing weekend and I’m glad my parents got to come with me!

So whats next?

I have registered for another 5k and have 2 more that I am planning on doing this year.  I really did enjoy the half marathon so will be looking for another one to do in the future.  Also, I may or may not be looking for a marathon to run in 2011 and I may or may not be making plans to run it with a bloggy friend!  Nothing is planned yet, or set in stone… just an idea for now :)  But will definitely keep you all posted!! :D

I'M OFFICIALLY GRADUATED!!!

I did it!! I turned in my last big internship paper today and now I am officially graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Organizational Communications!! :D My plan is to go back to a different school in the spring to finish up my sign language interpreting degree which will take 2 years or less! I am so excited to move on to what I actually want to do with my life, but for now I am content with just relaxing, working, and enjoying my next 2 quarters off! :D This is a picture from the spring commencement that I got to walk in even though I wasn't going to graduate til this summer:

WOOHOO!! Anyways... on to my long run recap! I got all my stuff out the night before because yes, meeting someone at 7:45am is early for me, especially since I was up past midnight working on my paper!

And yes... that envelope is a race registration, thanks for asking! ;) I sent in my registration for the Sweetcorn Festival 5k today. The race is on September 4th at 9am... races always make me nervous, but a good nervous.

I woke up this morning at 6:30am and ate 1 1/2 pieces of peanut butter toast and got dressed and checked the weather.. 59 degrees?!! I wore long sleeves for the first time running today! It felt so nice though! I headed out the door around 7:30 and met Jess at her place at 7:45am... right on time! As soon as I walked in, she was beaming and told me she just got of the phone and got the job she's been wanting!! Congrats Jess!! God knew you are perfect for that job!! After saying congrats and smiling ALOT, we headed out the door and she asked me "do you want to do a flat course, or hills?" Well, not being one to back down from a challenge I said "hills for sure!" We started out at a nice crisp pace, I really didn't pay attention because I was having too much fun talking to her... she's such a lovely person!! We did about a mile and then comes the "hill" part... I'm telling you, this was not a hill, it was a mountain!!! seriously... it was the steepest, longest hill I have run to date!! I felt like walking or crying, or both! Jess just kept saying "you can do it!" "you're almost there" "its downhill once we reach the top" Thank you Jess for encouraging me because I'm pretty sure thats the only thing that got me up that crazy hill! lol Well, that and my legs were completely numb by the time we hit 1.4 miles of our 7 mile run!

After that our run felt really good... I felt like she was pushing me, and she felt like I was pushing her... and pretty soon we were back to where we started 7.03 miles and 1 hr and 9 minutes earlier! Let me tell you, I am so proud of that run!! Our average pace was 9:48 min/mile and it felt great!! Jess had to go to work, but I left with promises on both ends that we would definitely run together more often! We both had a blast! I headed over to the park to continue my run... I didn't really tighten up yet because its less than a minute from her house. I did a couple loops around the park for a total of 2.26 miles in an average pace of 10:37 min/mile which is still faster than i had expected!! TOTALLY AWESOME!! Today was one of those days where everything goes well and the run is fun and better than you had hoped and everything just clicks!!

Long Run Total: 9.29 miles (longest run to date)

I then went and stretched beside the pond and believe me, my legs were dead!! (still are) I finished stretching and headed to kroger on my way home to pick up some chocolate milk and ice and when I got home I had me one of these:

First one in about 1 1/2 years (since college basketball training) it felt so good to submerge my dead tired screaming legs into the frigid water!! Then after soaking a bit I got a shower and pulled on my Sigvaris recovery socks!! I love these socks!! Thanks to Erica at I Run Because I Can for having the giveaway that I won!! These socks ROCK!! **Review to come in the next week**

And yes, my dog likes the Sigvaris socks too! :D Speaking of giveaways there are quite a few going on out there right now... check out my sidebar!

Countdown til my first half marathon: 28 days 7 hours and some odd minutes and seconds... less than a month!!

What are some great recipes for runners? Carb loading recipes, pre race recipes, post race recipes... I'm wanting to try some new recipes out so if you have any good ones please share!