Half

Tomorrow is our first Half Marathon!!! We've trained for five months, people. We're up to 18.4 miles in training, so this 13.1 shouldn't be the death of us.

I am so crazy excited to experience a race, finally. We're obviously not trying to win the race. We just want to finish and finish strong.

Caleb would run this run, except for the fact that his flight for Atlanta for work leaves right after the race is over. So we'll get a few sweaty goodbyes before he takes his fancy business man self on the road to the airport. We agreed that even though he's more than trained to run this Half, he'll skip this one and run the Philly Half in November on the day of the Full Marathon.

I am psyched.

My massive green smoothie is still surging through my body from two hours ago. I've been cleaning my house like a machine just to get some energy out.

My first Half Marathon is tomorrow!!!!!!!

Mini adults

I adore being a teacher. I started much more of my schedule for the year this week... and I'm really loving it. I feel like I'm already in the groove. A week ago I felt like the walking dead getting ready with lesson plans and schedules. This week I feel much more normal.

You can tell how much clearer my head is by my kitchen table. The past few weeks the table has been covered in books, papers, folders and highlighters. This week, it's not spotless, but it's significantly cleaner.

I've heard quite a few hilarious quotes from my students already. Oh yes, it's going to be a good year.

As a little 5-year-old boy was talking to me yesterday answering a question, I started to see him a little differently. Children are so candid. They are so themselves. I can see their personalities without any inhibitions. They are who they are.  We learn to hide and second guess who we are the older we get. Someone might meet me and think I'm so much different than what I actually am. I can fake it. I can be loud. I can be quiet. I can be sarcastic. I can be so many different things.

I can melt into my surroundings so I don't look different than the people around me.

But a kindergarten class... it's all sorts of colors. Not many 5-year-olds have learned to be anything else but who they are, yet.

I wish it could stay that way.

I started to think of what my husband would have been like at 5-years old. Ohhh he must have been so darn cute. I think that I'd see a lot of characteristics I see in him, now. I know him best. I'm his wife. But I wonder what things wouldn't be present yet in a 5-year-old version of the man I know so well. I wonder what kind of people these children will become.

I'm loving these miniature adults I teach everyday. They're so innocent. It's refreshing. It's a blessing. It's so much fun.

New year

As school has finally started back up again, I find myself really just taking it all in. I feel like I've been much more of a quiet observer of my students.

I feel content.

I feel at peace. I think this year I have some what of a grip on life, and where I am, and that God is present.

And I'm happy.

So as the school year takes off, I'm excited for Fall, and thankful for the summer I had. I'm excited about the cool weather, and grateful for the warmth of July. I'm thrilled to get my boots and scarves and sweaters back out, but I'll keep my bathing suit out just in case;)

I'm looking forward to this year. It's going to be different. And I'm excited about that.

Know fun

Something that's been quite a development for me in 2013, is running. After I had mono, I couldn't work out for 8 months without spleen pain. It was obnoxious. If anything, I'd have to keep any physical activity to a very low minimum.

Come May, I was feeling zero pain, and true to my obsessive self, I wanted a goal.

But not just any goal, my friends.

My best friend, Bi, and I have called working out "training" for a number of years. Why? Well, we had goals, but they never really ever worked out.

But this year. This would be the year. We decided to train for a half marathon. We didn't know if we'd really be able to do it, so we didn't register right away. But then we did. We were actually doing well with our training schedule, and we decided to go for it.

The difference between our first few "long runs" in May to now... unbelievable.

We were dying after a 33 minute run in MAY.

So, our Half is in a few weeks! September 29th, in Ocean City, NJ. We're so pumped. And also not scared... because....

We're training for a marathon now.

We're up to 16 miles with a great pace, and zero injuries. Tiny ones, but nothing that could stop us.

Allow me to share with you our experience running our first 16 miler.

We left around 9:30am on Labor Day. We figured we'd be somewhere around 3 hours for the whole run. We had 3 energy gels tucked into sports bras (Bad idea. Lesson learned.), and our water bottles filled. We started a trend of walking every so often to lessen the constant impact of the pavement for hours. It was going well.

The clouds promised rain, but the forecast said it shouldn't come just yet. Nonetheless, after five miles, we started to feel some sprinkling. We had just made it to my sisters apartment (my old one by my grandma's) to refill our water bottles. We decided, "let's just run in the rain!"

No, this was TORRENTIAL. We could hardly see in front of us. The rain drops were like icy bullets, soaking us layers deep.

Thunder pounded like a child dropping all the cookie sheets in the kitchen. Our new running shoes were housing mini oceans. Our headbands were doing a poor job keeping our faces dry.

Lightening. Yeah, we could see it now. It was that dark.

We thought about stopping a few times, but decided we'd run to my parent's, only a few miles away. We got there, and it was still buckets of rain. We were drenched to the point where we would have taken hours to completely dry even if we were inside.

I called Caleb, who was about to drive around to find us. He had our route from Map My Run, and was about to head out for us. Bi and I were distressed to say the least. We felt great. We were dying to keep running. The psychological adrenaline that empowers a runner after days of premeditation is not something easily dismissed.

Caleb was unsure, understandably. It was a mess outside. He gave us his blessing if it were to calm down out there.

Bi and I stood in the doorway of my parents dripping wet, and we decided we'd wait ten minutes to see if the thundering and lightening stopped. It did. We left.

We completed the next seven miles of our 16 mile run.

We ran in the rain the entire rest of the way, even if it was just sprinkling. We gained so much perspective after learning the troubles of running in a thunder storm... we feel like we can officially call ourselves, "runners," since we put up such a fight to accomplish our goal.

Bi gave me a little gift to celebrate our 16 miler. It was a shirt that said, "Know sweat, know fun." Indeed, my little bumble Bi. Indeed.

And so, we aim for an 18 miler in 2 weeks. We'll see how it goes... ;)

I'm still alive....

Alright. Now that it's been nine months, and I've failed at starting two other blogs with my married name, I think it's time I just continue to blog on this old account. Why mess with the system.

I miss writing. I miss blogging. And even though you old readers may have forgotten about me in my extended absence, that's ok.

I'm back. You'll hear from me soon.