A little perspective

As the holidays are approaching, I feel that it is best to remember what Christmas is about first and foremost.  Of course it's about the birth of Christmas, recognizing the beginning of the greatest gift ever given, and genuinely remembering that there is so much more to this life than we care to remember.  As the holidays approach, it's my hope that I remember I have a greater purpose than my current situation, joy can be found as long as Christ lives in you, and other people/things cannot define the content and peace you have in life.

My goal this holiday season, as it is each and every day, is to rely on my Savior for my happiness - something that I struggle with.  I know that I'm blessed and in no way do I deserve all that I have, but it becomes so easy to forget how I got to where I am now.  Not only does He define my joy, but I want to grow closer to Him each day, learning His truths and living the life He destined for me.

It's never an easy journey - in fact, if it was easy, wouldn't we all do it, all the time? Most likely.  The fact of the matter is, it's not easy and every day we continue to mess up.  I'm given hundreds of thousands of chances - none of which I deserve.  Yet, here I am - grateful and humble before the throne.

Remembering this during the holiday season just lets me take a look at my own life and the way I'm living.  The past few days (weeks would actually be more appropriate) I've had a negative outlook on life, mostly because I'm unhappy with my fieldwork experience.  And what I've come to realize is that I shouldn't let these 12 weeks define me.  So here it goes: I'm choosing to be happy and joyful and loving.  I'm choosing to have a positive outlook.  I'm choosing to let my faith define me and not other people.

Fieldwork Insight

10 Things I’ve learned from fieldwork:

1.  If you take a 5 minute bathroom break every hour, that’s 40 minutes less you have to work.

2.  People don’t notice if you take an extra-long lunch, watch Netflix (as long as you have headphones on), or go to Starbucks. 

3.  No one knows how long it really takes you to write up an eval.  You can write one real quickly and pretend to be doing it for days.  They don’t know.

4.  Catching kids from 5 feet up is just part of the job.  And trust me, not every kid is as little as they look.

5.  If you pretend to be busy, people won’t talk to you as much or ask you to do as many things.

6.  If someone has a nosebleed, save the pillows first, and then deal with the child.

7.  It’s actually okay to be on pinterest as long as you look up crafting things for your kids.

8.  Not everyone is friendly; sometimes they’re downright mean (on purpose).  So kill them with kindness.

9.  When in doubt, plan an obstacle course.

10.  Playing with kids is not a privilege.  That’s why people get paid to do it.   

This just in

I felt compelled to tell you about my morning run.  It's no secret that I get up before the sun rises to fit in anywhere between a 3-8 mile run before work (depending on my exhaustion and feasibility).  This morning was no different.  My alarm went off at 5:20 and by 5:40 I was heading out the door for an easy 4 miler.  I planned on taking it easy since I ran both Saturday and Sunday and have developed a new tightness/pain in left leg.

When I run this early I usually run the same route 2-3 days out of the week and just extend the mileage depending on what I'm running.  It's a pretty safe run and I feel comfortable with the passing cars, runners, and walkers even in the dark.  As I rounded the first mile, I headed up the Trinity Ave. hill which is slow. gradual incline (the worst kind in my opinion).  I stopped for traffic and all of a sudden out of nowhere, something hit me in the back of my head.  Honestly, it felt like a rock.  I scanned the neighborhood I was running in looking for signs of people wondering if someone threw something at me.  And there was nothing.

I crossed the street and kept on running.  And then out of nowhere, again it hit me in the back of the head.  This time I caught a pretty glimpse of the culprit, but not after screaming bloody murder first.  It was...an OWL!!! Attacking my ponytail from behind!  It scared the living crap out of me.  After I spotted him, he was perched on telephone wires above.  Just waiting for me to move.  He started flying towards me again, and this time I screamed, scaring him.  Not to mention the biker who rode past me.

I just stood still for a few minutes.  I didn't know what to do.  Finally the owl flew in the other direction, but that was enough for me to cut my run short.  I headed back to the house and ran a short loop once I got there, getting in a little over 3 miles.  Hopefully, the owl is gone when I run again on Wednesday...

Hey, at least it wasn't a bat right?

Oops...a few weeks behind

Well, it seems that the busy Holiday season has finally caught up with me and I’m barely making it through the weeks with my head above water.  It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted so there’s quite a bit that I actually need to blog about.  Be prepared for lots of words and an extremely long post.  I’m promising pictures too so hopefully I can get myself together and get back to date with this thing.

MARATHON

So…I did it!! I ran a marathon!! Can you believe it?  A year ago, I never imagined that I would finish my first half marathon and now here I am, an accomplished marathoner.  I know, I know, it was only one marathon, but it was freaking amazing!!!  Of course, it was also incredibly brutal and mentally exhausting, but I felt ready and beyond prepared for the feat.

In fact, I felt amazing up until mile 20.  Kim and I ran together, talking as casually as one can when running an ungodly amount of mileage at one time, listening to music, and feeling pretty good.  At mile 13 we stopped, refilled our water bottles, changed our shirts, and fueled up for the next half courtesy of Kim’s parents who supported us the whole way through.  Around mile 20, my feet began aching and my mental game was dwindling.  I told Kim that I was finally going to have to walk through the water stations (up until then, we ran the whole thing!).  Walking through the water stations ended up being my saving grace.  In fact, I started looking forward to the water stations just so I could have 30 seconds of brief rest before picking up the pace again.  At mile 21.5, we again refilled on gummies and Gatorade and Kyle jumped in to run the last few miles with us.  And yes, I still walked through the water stops.  Around mile 23, I started feeling the burn.  My quads started burning and my feet truly ached (all glorious joys of being an avid runner).  Around mile 24, I told Kim to go on without me.  I don’t know how, but she felt great the whole time; unfortunately for me, I didn’t get that runner’s high.  So while Kim ran on ahead, Kyle and I finished the last two miles out.  I walked briefly right before mile 25 to regain my composure and dignity, but not before dropping the F$%^ bomb a few times and getting some sympathetic looks from nearby runners.  And then I saw it – the Mile 25 sign.  There was no going back now.  This was it.  I had prepared myself for this moment.  There would be no stopping.  At this point, it was all or nothing.  So here I go.  I ran that last mile as fast as my burning, aching, but strong legs would allow me to go. 

And I sprinted down that big hill at the finish like I’ve never sprinted before.  And just like that, it was all over.  4 hours and 26 minutes of running later, I finished a marathon.  It’s probably the thing I am most proud of in my life.  Of course at the end, my whole body tightened, I was dehydrated, and had waves of nausea and exhaustion throughout the day, but I did it.  4 months of training, 3 long 20 mile runs, thousands of miles, blisters, aches, tears, and toenails later, I did what I set out to do.  

Will I run another one?  Would you believe that I’ve already signed up for next year?

Post-Marathon Running

I’ve been reading up quite a bit on what to expect after you run a marathon in terms of running.  I can expect the following: weeks of recovery at slower tempos, continued soreness as a result, numerous aches and pains, delayed mental fitness, exhaustion, depression, and more decrepit toenails, just to name a few. 

What I really want to know is how long should I expect to be able to run long runs again without hurting? What kind of running schedule should I be on post-marathon?  How soon is too soon and how long is too long to start/go? 

While I’ve found varied answers to these questions, here’s what I did.  I ran the marathon on Saturday.  Uncharacteristically, I took off Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.  By Wednesday I was dying to lace up my running shoes and take them for a spin.  I had planned on doing an easy 3 mile run, but felt so great, I ended up running 7 miles.  Thursday I ran 4-5 miles and took Friday off.  And just like that, I was back into the swing of things.  Call it good training or maybe crazy stupidity, but I’m already running 5 days a week again and cross training at least two more.  I’ve had a series of runs, all of them difficult I will admit – but that I am crediting to the marathon.  My long weekend run consists (so far) of a whopping 10 miles right now, but that’s about as much as I can handle safely. 

Between working 50 hours a week and sleeping in that other time, running is about the only thing that keeps me sane.  As the cold weather keeps rolling in, it gets a little bit harder to run every weekend.  But somehow, I’m still managing to get up and put one foot in front of the other.  Of course, I’m always looking for a new race to run.  Here’s what my race schedule (tentatively) looks like for 2013…

·         Disney Princess Half Marathon – Feb 24 (confirmed)

·         Shamrock Marathon – March 17 (tentative)

·         Spring Fling 10K (tentative)

·         Cooper’s Bridge 10K – April 6 (confirmed)

·         Monument 10K March/April – (tentative)

·         Marine Corp Half Marathon – May (tentative)

·         Reach the Beach Ultra Relay – May (tentative)

·         Marine Corp Marathon – October (tentative)

·         Richmond Marathon – November (confirmed)

I’d prefer to have another half thrown in here or there, plus I need something for January too…I had the Charleston SC half pegged for January, but I really need to find some more running friends or at least convince Kim and Tina they  need to run with me.