best part of my day.

I'm back from San Diego, where I gorged myself on surfing, hiking, the beach, and of course, Mexican food and Sushi. It was as perfect as a vacation could get for me. I have plenty of killer pictures from my trip, but for now, one of my favorites.

After an intense two-mile hike down to Three Sisters waterfall in the San Diego back country, we took a break next to the waterfall to soak up the sun and the views. Spectacular. We hiked back out and at the end I realized I had just had one of the most satisfying experiences of my life.

More to come!

six weeks to hospital hill.

I feel like my life is a spiral of crazy right now. Not in a bad way, just in a busy way. Things I've known were coming my way for months are now here, and I'm all... "whaaaaaa? wait, no that's not for awhile yet." Uhhhhh, no. Things are coming at me left and right, and I need to catch up. Quickly.

I have a half marathon to run in six weeks. Hospital Hill is quickly approaching. I'm not going to race this, seeing how it will be hot as balls and humid. But that doesn't mean I want to just give up on it. I still want to do it in under two hours. And while my speed is in fine shape for that pace in a half, my endurance, not so much.

I'm worried about getting my longer miles in considering some upcoming travel. We are heading to San Diego next week, and while yes I can and do run on vacation, I don't want to obsess over getting in a 12 miler while I'm busy surfing, hiking, exploring and eating my way through a week of fun and relaxation.

Hopefully I can get in a few 12-milers in the weekends after my trip. That ball will be in my court. As in finally giving in, manning up, and running the longer miles I've been avoiding the past.... oh....six months or so.

In other news. Amid life, work, teaching, beer brewing business, distractions and not checking my 'running' email in about three months, I totally forgot about the NYC lottery drawing. Thanks to Twitter I was reminded, so I went and checked my email account and saw I didn't get in. I'm not disappointed by this information. One bit. For a variety of reasons. One being that my main marathon partner will be having a baby right around that time! SQUUUUUUEEEEEE!! Had I gotten in, I would have deferred. No fun in doing a 'dream' marathon alone, right?

Week 4 of HH (hospital hill 1/2) Training: 
Monday - 3 Miles Easy
Tuesday - 5 Miles Easy
Friday - 5 Miles Easy / Hot Yoga
Saturday - 10 Miles (planned)
Sunday - Hot Yoga (planned)

best part of my day. getting away.

It was really more my entire weekend. I spent the weekend in the Ozarks with my oldest sister and my cousin. We shopped like we meant it, ate some great food, slept a lot and piddled around. It was a much needed cousin weekend away. Back to reality, sadly.

If you've never been to that part of the country, you wouldn't know how beautiful it is. Sadly I didn't grab my camera on my way out the door and didn't get any really good pictures of where we were staying (at table rock lake). But it's beautiful down there. And not filled with hicks and rednecks like one might think. Just friendly people, beautiful scenery and lots of shopping! Did I mention the shopping? Shopping. It made me happy.

st. patty's day 5k. livin' on the edge.

I wrote this two days after the race, which was a month ago. Still posting it anyway, because that's how I roll. At least I made sure to add pictures:

So about that race on Saturday. To actually race or NOT to race? Well that decision was made quite easily for me. For a variety of reasons. Lemme 'esplain.

a) I set my alarm for 6:30a since my friends were coming to my house around 7:30a to pick me up. And my alarm never went off. Excellent. I woke up at 7:15a.

b) My allergies hate me. Which means I can barely breathe let alone run well.

c) The girls and I.....well... we were under the impression the race started at 8:30a. Since that's what it had said on the race regi page. Annnnnnnd we were wrong. Our other friends running the race realized this fact and were actually there on time. We unintentionally bandited a race only because we got to a race that started at 8a, at 7:59a. Time to pick up packets? Um, no. Bandits! Even though we paid, we just didn't get to use our chips and bibs. So sad.

 *pre-race. we were thinking we had so much time....*

Therefore, AP beat me once again. The awesome part was the only reason we knew the race started at 8a is because of the starting line phone call we got from our other friends we were meeting at the race. Telling me AP was going to race without me. We were confused. We talked it out. I shared that AP could have the win because my sinuses hate me and obviously we weren't going to get to the race in time. I admit defeat again.

AP is a winner. I am a loser. AP = 3; BR = 0. But that's a 0 I wear with pride. I will continue to race him, someday I will win. I'm not a quitter! Most of the time, anyway. I have plans though. There shall be a 10K showdown and he will have to man up and run in a longer race for once. Enter into MY territory!

Moving on. We parked (we made our own spot, that's how we roll) and jogged to the start line, as we were jogging we saw the racers come around the bend.... soooooo we just jumped in. And a minute into the race we spotted our other friends racing, caught up to them and proceeded to enjoy the race together all while sporting our supa' hot st. pat's knee socks. It was a win-win.

 *post race with our little group that day*

Our group split after the race, some to run extra miles and then those of us not so ambitious (coughahem) went and loaded ourselves up with delicious coffee and had some fantastic quality time with the girls. You can see where my racing-mind currently resides.... that's right. It pretty much doesn't exist. Meh. Fatty delicious mocahs with lots of girl-talk after a race = happiness for me. Another great race day in the books! I'll take it, especially since race days are fewer and further between for me these days (100% by choice). Even if a boy DID beat me. 

Cheers to a week of running, interwebbers!