Fun Time in Disney

Disney was awesome.

The only problem was that it went by so fast! But it was great to feel like a little girl again! We spent two days at Magic Kingdom, then went to Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios.

Animal Kingdom is definitely a favorite though I think Magic Kingdom, as it is for most people, takes the cake. Nothing can beat the view of Cinderella's Castle! Next time I would like to spend more time at Hollywood Studios and Epcot. I got sick the last couple of days we were there and I wasn't able to see all of Epcot and we didn't have much time at Hollywood studios.

The trip went by so fast and now I have to focus back in on Work and school work. Unfortunately it seems I have the flu or something close to it. I've stayed home from school yesterday and work today to try and fight it off. It's frustrating because my half marathon is a little less than three weeks away and I've already missed two days of running!

Disney World

I am so excited!

Tomorrow I'm off to Disney World with the family! I get to see my two adorable nieces and their adorable parents :)

I haven't been since I was 6 so I am super excited!

Now all I have to do is just get through one more day of school...

Running Out of Time

I told you I wouldn't keep up with this.


Well, in the last post I mentioned the Turkey Trot 10k race I was planning to run. Well, I ran it! I ran the entire thing in 54 minutes and 38 seconds. Pretty good for me considering I had never ran that far in my life! It felt so good to cross the finish line and I nearly cried with exhaustion and happiness.

Shortly after the race I looked to my dad and said, "Well that's it I've been bitten."
My dad put his arm around me and laughed, "Bitten by what?"
I grinned up at him, "The Marathon bug. Now I have to run the Marathon."

And so it begins.

A month later on December 13th my friend Erin and I are waiting to start the Blue and Gray 5k. It was 7:00 in the morning and a balmy 26 degrees. Erin had heard of me running the 10k at Quantico, so she ran one herself in Alexandria on Thanksgiving Day and felt the same surge of excitement and wonder at running. So, naturally being best friends we had to do a race together.

A 5k is 3.1 miles and after doing the 6 felt like nothing. And when I say "felt like nothing" I could almost mean literally because I could feel nothing from my waist down until about 1 mile in. My legs were frozen!

I finished the race with a time of 25:56 (Erin got 23 something) and felt pretty good. My average 3 mile time at home was around 28 minutes, so I was glad to shave off almost 3 minutes from my time. After the race the topic of conversation wasn't the race but the long hill on the way back. You're on your last mile in the freezing cold and you hit this hill that's at least a quarter of a mile long. It was brutal :)
After the race we replenished our carbs with a breakfast at Ihop. It was 9am and I had already ran 3 miles. I was amazed.

January 1st I ran the Resolution 5k. That day wasn't as cold, but it was really windy, there was low humidity (dry cold air is horrible for running), and all of the runners were trying to squeeze onto little trails. So, I didn't get as good as a time as I would have liked. Shaved just three seconds off my last 5k time; 25:53. But I did get 3rd place in my age division for women! I won a gift certificate to VA Runner. I used it to get my new purple nikes :)

And then February 8th Ryan and I ran the Sweet Heart 4 Ever 4 Miler together :) It was really nice of him to run it with me. We finished in 36:16. They got this funny shot of us running. It's proof of his love for me!



So now I am following a personal training schedule I printed out from RunnersWorld.com. I generally run 20 miles per week and this week my long run on Sunday was 9 miles! So, my perception on distance has really changed. That 4 miler Ryan and I ran together was pretty easy and I probably could have ran it again right after the race.

Why all this running you ask? I am training (and so is Erin) for the 1/2 Marathon in VA Beach on March 22nd. This is why I am running out of time! I have a little over 4 weeks before the big one!

Boo for Bye Weeks

Well, we did get to take Riley home yesterday. He is doing well though he is going to be on medication and has to be leash walked for two weeks. He has an appointment Monday to go see a specialist, so hopefully they will be able to tell what's wrong with him.

Yesterday was pretty relaxing. I got up and walked Bronson with Patty for about an hour and then I ran 3 miles. Needless to say my legs are pretty sore (I've been running on the treadmill for the past two weeks). I am getting pretty excited about Saturday. Even though I have friends who run the Marine Corps Marathon every year, and when I say run it...I really mean that they run all 26 miles! Insanity.

And yes...boo for Redskins bye week. That means I have no football to watch this weekend! I guess I could watch the Titans play....

So - it's time to think about Christmas shopping. I have been using the Gift Organizer function on Amazon.com to create my Christmas list. I am still debating on whether or not I will buy all of the items from them, but I tell you what ordering stuff online makes it a lot easier! But I don't want to give up the thrill of shopping at the brick and mortar establishments! I will probably do a little of both, but if you haven't checked out Amazon.com's gift organizer you really should.

If anything it's fun :P

Dogs, Recruiters and Races oh my!

Ryan's dog Riley has been having some breathing issues lately. We all think we got a piece of his dog toy lodged in his esophagus and it's causing secretions to build up so that he coughs, hacks, and wheezes when he gets excited. Ryan's mom took him to the vet a few weeks ago and the Vet said he was fine and that it was just allergies (I don't think he even did an x-ray or looked at his throat with a scope or anything). Well, today I got a text from Patty (Ryan's mom) saying that she had to take Riley to the emergency vet today! The poor thing vomited this morning, had a fever, and was gagging and coughing more than ever. Turns out he has aspirate pneumonia which means something lodged in his lungs and created an infection - which was probably the mucus he was coughing up. Last we heard from the Vet (at around 6ish tonight) was that his fever had gone down and that he had eaten dinner. So, it sounds like he is doing well. If only the first Vet had done his job poor Riley may not be in a strange kennel tonight :( Patty and I are going to see if we can pick him up tomorrow. Poor thing.



So, Ryan has been trying to join the Army again for a couple of months now and some how ended up with the most inept recruiter in all of the Army. The guy has already taken leave a number of times without notifying Ryan and seems to need twice the number of documents than Ryan needed the first time he joined. So, two or three weeks ago Ryan finally got all his paperwork together and in that the guy said he needed at random intervals, and Ryan has been checking back once a week to see what the status was and was hoping the recruiter would give him a call. No word. So, Ryan calls today and finds out the guy he had been working with has been transferred! Common decency would have told the recruiter that he should contact his clients when he is going on leave, and especially when he is being transferred and make sure that he provides them with another recruiter's name and contact information. Poor Ryan! He is getting so frustrated about this whole thing. Patty suggested he go to another recruiter so I told him that again today. Maybe another office can move him quicker, but the one near our house is just so much more convenient so I think that is one of the main reasons why Ryan doesn't want to switch.





Next Saturday I am running the Turkey Trot on base. It's a 10k run which is supposed to be about 6 miles. Today I went to run the course just to see if I could even run the whole thing in one go, and I think I missed a leg! I ran what I thought was the course in 45 minutes so I knew that I definitely didn't run 6 miles. I clocked it on the way out using my car and it turns out that I ran about five miles not 6. I tend to run only 3 miles, 3 times per week so my legs and butt are pretty sore right now! But it's a good sore and I am excited about the race next Saturday. It'll be my first one! I hope that it's not too cold! I am trying not to psyche myself up for getting a fantastic time. I just want to be able to get a decent time and say that I ran pretty much the whole thing. So...if you remember...send me energy next Saturday morning!

Hello

I can never keep up with these things, but seeing as how my two sisters each have one I figured I would start one :)

It's nice to be able to login to their lives whenever to see what's going on.

So, I'll try to keep this one up.

We shall see how long this lasts :)