Glow, Girl, Glow

It has been a long time. Once again. So to my one follower (hi dad!), I'd like to apologize and thank you for reading even after all this time.

Last year, the hubs and I decided to re-do our first honeymoon. We titled it our “no flu second honeymoon.” (You can guess some details of our first.) Where else to go when you want to not experience the flu, but Tennessee!

Buffalo vs. Bison and Local Pronunciation

If you have been a reader of this blog for some time, you know that I don't have much luck with New York.

Way back in February, my partner in 50by50 (Chrissy) and I went to NYC for the weekend to try for a third time at a NY race.

The good news: We got to see Newsies on Broadway.

The bad news: We also got to see a lot of the Megabus as we ended up coming back early due to weather...and YES, ditched the race.

Sigh.

Presbyterians gone...wild?

Ooh boy, it's been a long time. That's what you get for planning a wedding, having the wedding, going on a honeymoon, and getting the flu. Oh yeah, and throw some awesome kiddos in the mix and you get the picture. My life went from single to domestic like woah. And I love it. Well, maybe not the flu, but the rest has been stellar.

Here's a wedding pic just for fun:

Yup, we're ordering hot dogs at our food truck-caterer. Our wedding was seriously pretty great.

Chicken in the car, car won't go...

That's how you spell...CHI-CA-GO!

I'm afraid this blog entry will not be my most exciting, for a few reasons:

1. I am late in writing this and still don't have much time to do it-- I blame the holidays and all my lovely friends and family-- in this case, being busy is a joy.

2. The race in Chicago was not too notable, and sadly, I don't have any pictures of the actual race.

So to spare you all time in reading a boring blog, let me just say that Chicago is an awesome city and it was fun being able to run out the door of my friend's apartment for a race that was only about a quarter mile away. The Jingle Bell Jog for arthritis had a good turnout and some fun giveaways and food type stuff. I did not do well for me - most likely because I had not been running much and because the race was on a snowy, slippery path in a park. I did have fun though, and I'm glad that I've hit 16 states. Next up, Kentucky!

If you want to donate to Kiva, you can do so here.

Happy New Year!

Running Around a Square...For the Fifth Time

The Run Around the Square is my favorite Pittsburgh 5k. I love it because of the unbelievable turnout, amazing community support, interesting musicians, great swag, and of course the champagne stop after mile one.

While some of these areas were a bit lacking this year (not such great freebies, and I think I only saw one musician-- compared to other years that had bagpipes, steel drums, and violins all throughout the course), I again loved the race.

This year there were two big perks:

1. A whole slew of people from PWRD/PSL/RUNPGH (gotta love the acronyms!) made me feel rich in running buddies, and

2. I was one second below my 5K PR (in part thanks to the people mentioned in #1 who motivated me to pick it up on the last mile) which was over a minute and a half faster than my best time for this race in particular!

It's kind of a tough race as the trails are narrow and mile two has some brutal hills, but it is always a fun one to do and I hope to be there again next year for the 30th anniversary!

"You just don't get used to it..."

This weekend was a twofer...two races in two states for the price of one (sort of).

My friend and fellow runner, Traci, had suggested I come up to visit her and her family outside of Boston to do two races in one weekend - a 5K in Providence, RI, and a 1/2 marathon in Quincy, MA. With the promise of knocking two states off at once and spending a weekend with good friends, it didn't take much convincing.

After being picked up from the airport, I went with Traci to pick up some professional pictures she had taken of the kids, and then we headed back to her place, where I was greeted by this:

How nice to have people anticipating your visit!

A trip to Jupiter

Race number 7 brought me all the way to Jupiter....Florida that is.



As I was unable to find a race while in Florida with my family, I called up my friend Jeff and arranged a visit. Luckily, I was also able to talk him into signing up with me!

A Taste of Community

Cheyenne, Wyoming: Race for the Cure- August 8, 2009

Sea Level is for Sissies

Race number 5...Allenspark, Colorado

Nebraska! (or, a 10 hour car ride)

So Chrissy and I just completed our 2nd race together as part of our 50 in 50 adventure (her 3rd state, my 4th). For Nebraska, we decided to just do a small town run, since the timing was right and it was drivable from Highlands, the summer camp where she lives and I work.

We had originally signed up for the 10k but after taking into account the LONG car ride we would have before and after the run, we decided to punk out and drop to the 5k. Good plan, in hindsight. The drive was acually a good time, because it started after a morning of sleeping in and eating lunch at Meadow Mountain, plus it was great just sharing a road trip with a great friend!

So it begins...(or 3 down, 47 to go)

This summer my friend Chrissy and I made the same life goal. We each decided we would run 50 races, in all 50 states, by the time we are 50. I got the idea from a guy I met when I ran my marathon who is doing the same thing with some friends, except they are doing 50 half-marathons.
Read more about my first marathon here: http://mylifeinthreed.blogspot.com/2007/09/i-did-it.html



We are a little less ambitious. :-) Our only stipulation is that each must be an officially organized race-- and must include running-- distance does not matter. The tricky part of course will be all the traveling. If I could count all the states I have run in, I would definitely have more than 3 by now...and I have to travel back to some far away places I have already been. Oh well...I suppose I can try to get some kind of excitement about having to go back to Hawaii. sigh. :-) Anyway, my first race ever was in California with AmeriCorps-- 10k-- just under 1 hour. And I have done plenty in Pennsylvania, including my best (and only) marathon (pictured left)- 4:29:41, best 10k- 50:37, and my best 5k- 23:30. And just this weekend, Chrissy and I flew in to North Carolina to cheer on our friends running the Charlotte marathon while we ran the 5k Jingle Jog with our other friend Emily.




Here we are on the way to breakfast post race. Emily and I ran wearing the hats- and it was a good thing that we did because it was COLD! :-)

47 to go...


Stay tuned for more running adventures!