five hours : forty-two minutes : twenty-two seconds

one of the greatest accomplishments of my life so far has officially been checked off my list.


so the san diego rock 'n roll marathon was yesterday and i think anyone who knows mackenzie, whitney and i would agree that we are rockstars. we were all first timers in the marathon world and we crossed the finish line running!


it all started two years ago when i went with my sis-in-law whitney to watch her husband matt run this same marathon. and watching all those people cross the finish line is so inspiring. there are so many different types of people that you find yourself thinking, "if they can do it, i can do it." and so the seed was planted.


but that seed didn't grow at ALL during the next year. but after matt finished the following year, whitney said she wanted to finally crack down and do the training so that we could do the marathon. but this time, the seed actually grew and whitney and i decided to do it together. i went online and found some training schedules that said a beginner could get the proper amount of training in six months. so i organized a whole schedule by date and workout for the six months leading up to the race and gave a copy to whitney. (i might have put it into an excel spreadsheet, but you can't judge because i just like things organized).


whitney and i, maybe, followed the schedule for a couple weeks and then the schedule became more of a suggestion. we ran on a weekly basis, but we didn't really train seriously for 3 or 4 months. we were back and forth and back and forth as to whether we really wanted to do it. but eventually we made the decision, got in a few longer runs, and signed up for the race. mike and matt's little brother mackenzie also decided to run it too somewhere along the way.


so the three of us were finally going to follow in matt's footsteps and try to do it together.


and all of us finished! mackenzie finished about 15 minutes before whitney and i did (we lost him at the very beginning of the race because whitney and i had to go pee in the bushes. obviously girls take longer to pee and we just never caught up to him.)


i can still hardly believe we actually did it. the only thing that reminds me of that fact is that i can barely stand today. my legs are SOOO sore, but it was well worth it. this was the single most difficult thing i've ever set out to do. it's so much of a mental game and i couldn't have done it without whitney. she pushed me through the whole second half when i was really struggling to keep going. but i kept going and the feeling i had crossing the finishing line was pure ELATION! everyone was cheering for the runners and i felt such a sense of accomplishment. nothing compares.


and i'm so glad it's over. i'll probably keep running on a weekly basis (once my muscles feel better, of course). i don't know if i'll be able to do the marathon again, but i think that participating in some shorter races on a regular basis is definitely in my future.


here are some pictures from all the fun and festivities...

mack, me, whit, and matt at the expo picking up all our goodies.

this is megan who came down from bakersfield with mike and matt's cousins to come watch the race.

ryan and olivia at our carbo load dinner.

me and whitney (please note this picture was generously taken by six-year-old megan).

the whole gang at buca di beppo.

before the race at o-five-hundred hours (translation: it was EARLY!!!)

me and whitney with our matching outfits and new jackets.

some of the runners on friars

me and whit at the halfway point. still smiling.

there was a batman and robin duo running yesterday.

my mom heading to the finish line.

some of the many elvi running in the race.

the crazy guy running in with the cape was completely naked. not sure at what mile he decided pants were no longer necessary. my parents took this picture. too funny.

me and whitney running to the finish line. almost there.

we barely had the energy to stand up for this photo, but we are still smiling and we got our medals.

the four finishers.

the whole family at the finish line.

me and my medal!!! woohoo, it's over!

i LOVE weddings!

last weekend mike and i attended the wedding of our friends fred and brigid.   mike was the best man and we ended up having a great time!  the reception was actually at the same place we had our wedding, so it was really fun to be on the other side of it for a change.  congratulations to fred and brigid!  we love you guys.

p.s. i've been trying to take more pictures of the things that we do so you all have more to look at.  enjoy!

doesn't my husband look so pretty in brown?  looking good, babe!!

the boys.  (the groom is in the front middle.)

the bride with her sisters and her niece.

mike's friend bb with a turtle he found at webb park

the bride's dress was GORGEOUS! it had a very vintage feel! (you may have to click on the photo to enlarge it to see the detail)

the bride with the groomsman.  this picture is so cute with all the sunglasses!

me and mike.  we don't take nearly enough pictures together.

after the ceremony, fred and brigid took this vintage car to the reception.

me and julie forest.  i miss her and need to make more of an effort to visit her and scott in temecula.  she and i started the dancing that night with our boys.  so much fun!

the first dance

the first dance was cut short halfway through so the bride and groom could enjoy the astro jump that was present for all the kiddies to enjoy!

mike giving his best man speech.

san clemente sunsets

as you all know, mike and i don't have a whole lot of time to spend together.  but on occasion we'll do more than sit in our living room, eating egg burritos while watching lost.  

so a couple weeks ago, when the weather had made a turn for the better, we decided to go and watch the sunset.  by the time i got off work, mike had packed up a cooler with some cheese and crackers and we headed down to the beach.  it was so nice and peaceful just to sit and watch the waves and the surfers as the sun slowly drifted toward the horizon.  

i took a few photos and here are a few i wanted to share.  (have i told you guys how much i love living near the beach yet?)

here's an artsy one.

i tried playing with some of the editing options and i think this one came out pretty well.

once the sun went behind some clouds, there were so many beautiful colors in the sky.

and i finally got my in-focus picture of the moon.

by golly, she is alive!

i know you've all been wondering where i've been for the past month.  and the truth is, i haven't been on some exotic island where they barely know what running water is, let alone have an internet connection, further preventing me from posting updates to my beautiful blog.  

i've been around, but have been more interested in reading the updates of others instead of making my own updates.  and for this, i apologize.  but don't fret, i will be making more of a conscious effort to post more often than once a month.  

so to start, i thought i'd update you on my "garden"  (you must picture me holding up the first two fingers on both hands while slightly bending at the second knuckle when i say "garden."  these air quotes, as they are called, are necessary because three pots can hardly be called a garden).

but look!  after a month, my flowers are still beautiful!

JUST KIDDING!!! (had you there for a second, didn't i?)

my garden actually looks like this...

everything has died except for my kalanchoes.  those are still a brilliant redish orange color, which i love!  i really don't know what i did wrong.  it's possible that i didn't water them often enough.  and it's also possible that most of the flowers i bought because they were pretty (rather than easy to care for) don't get nearly enough sunlight on our balcony.  oh well.  i'm thinking about replanting a bunch of those kalanchoes in various colors since i seem just conscientious enough not to kill them.  

any helpful gardening tips are welcome!

my green thumb

i was at a garage sale a couple weeks ago and bought two pots for $2.  i thought i'd try to liven up our balcony a little bit and bring in some spring colors.  so today, i am making my first attempt at trying to keep some flowers closer to alive than dead for an extended period of time.

i don't know anything about gardening.  i usually over water things, causing whatever it is to drown.  although, mike and i have somehow managed to keep one houseplant alive, but i think the plant actually refuses to die.  when we moved to our apartment, i swear the plant was on its last leg--leaves super droopy and starting to turn brown--and so i just set it outside to wait for it to die.  mike decided it still had some life to it, watered it, and a couple days later it bounced back.  the plant has fought numerous times for its own life that i feel like i owe it to the plant to keep watering it.  so i do, and it's still alive.

but flowers are a whole other category that i know will require much more tlc than i have offered to my house plant.  we'll see.  

but this is what they look like on day 1.  aren't they pretty?

ugh. running. ugh again.

preface--semi-inspired by whitney's 'lessons i've learned from my dogs' series.  oh how you always one-up me, whit (fist shaking).  coming up with all the good ideas first.  i think this means that i am a terrible blogger.  i must have missed the first day of 'blogging 101' where they teach you it is the cardinal sin of blogging to steal ideas and content from your peers in the blogosphere.  oh well, i love you whitney. and please don't be mad i am stealing borrowing your idea.

well, it's been a not-so-wonderful 115 days since i started working out by way of running.  and in the, maybe, 30 days i've actually put on my work out clothes, laced up my shoes, and walked out my door, i've learned some very important lessons that i thought i'd share with you.

things i've learned in my short time as a runner very slow jogger.

1. you can't go from zero to marathon overnight
   
2. just because you buy all the fancy running gadgets, doesn't make getting up in the morning any easier
   
3. there is a very strong chance that you will see people much older than you or much younger than you running 3x your speed and seem like they are actually enjoying themselves.  as if running can be fun!  who are you people?
   
4. you need to switch it up.  run a new route.  intermingle short distances and long distances.  listen to new music.  change up the scenery.  wear your mp3 armband on the other arm sometimes so you don't end up with one huge tanline on your left arm.
5. running outside is much more fun, but much more difficult.  it's a trade off.
6. daylight savings makes it so much easier to train.  it's too hard to get out of bed in the morning and now i can run after work without feeling like i might be pulled into the bushes at any given moment.
7. every day is different and there are good days and bad days.  some days i feel like i could run forever.  and others i get a side cramp right from the get go and wish i had listened to my instincts and sat on the couch watching friends with a bucket of popcorn.
8. it's important to understand that if you run 4 miles in one direction, you must travel that same distance to get back.
9. when using moleskin padding to cover the same blister that keeps reappearing under the bunion on your right foot, make sure you listen when the directions tell you your feet must be clean for it to stay in place.  that's no funny business.
10. being in shape makes it much easier to push through the pain (sore legs, side aches, feeling like your head is going to explode from overheating) and keep going until you finish the distance you set out to do.
11. while running along the trail by the ocean and listening to panic at the disco's 'nine in the afternoon,' you may repeatedly think the train is about to pass you, but it's not.
12. if you get your head in the game and decide that you are going to run after work without fail, no excuses, you might be rewarded when you are done with a beautiful sunset like this. (oh how i love living near the beach!) 

Lucky # 13.

and above all else, when you hear the train coming, turn your face away from the tracks or you'll be whipped by grains of dirt and sand like you're a camel in a dust storm!  and that's no fun for anyone!

and the cougars came out to play (part 2 of 2)

...continued from march 2, 2009

as we sat at our table, we found ourselves looking at every single person in the room. the guy at the next table was wearing a fancy suit and had a ponytail. one lady was wearing a black, halter, sheath dress with a huge silver embellishment that looked like something you would find at forever 21. one of the guys playing pool looked like he was dressed in designer duds with the top few buttons of his shirt open displaying a (lovely) chain around his neck. a woman of probably 60 was wearing a baby blue sweater with silver threading and a black skirt that was maybe six inches in length and much too short for someone her age. another woman was wearing a strapless corset type dress made from spring green eyelet fabric which was a.) too small and cut her boobs in half, and b.) looked like it belonged on tinkerbell with the way the fabric of the skirt was cut. another guy from across the room looked like he belonged at a biker bar. he was wearing all black and had a leather cowboy hat on. it was quite the eclectic bunch.

but they all had one thing in common. they were all single and ready to mingle.

by about 8:30, the band was finishing setting up and testing their equipment and some background music came on. several people moved to the dance floor and it seemed like every couple dancing didn’t really mesh well together. one guy was all over the dance floor dancing with multiple women at once. he had graying hair and was wearing dockers and a polo shirt—nothing super fancy. but man did he like to dance! his dance moves were so bouncy that his hair, parted perfectly down the middle, flew up and down as he moved. he basically danced circles around all the women on the dance floor trying to win each of their hearts through his interpretation of dance. we also watched the woman with the short skirt and blue sweater gyrate her hips back and forth in a way that made me scared everyone would get an unwelcomed peek at her vajayjay. i felt a little uncomfortable and uneasy, though very amused, watching the antics on the dance floor, but little did i know there would be much, much more.

at 9ish, the band began to play. the band members looked to be in their late 20s and they seemed fairly hip. the lead singer was a girl and i hoped that the band played blues and soul music. i was not even close. it turns out they were a cover band playing everything from santana to bob seger. as the first song started, i realized i’d never seen so many people move so fast to get to the dance floor. it was as if they felt this was their absolute, last opportunity to find love and every single second was of the utmost importance in their search. they danced it out like they meant it.

by this point, mike’s friends arrived and he mingled with them a little bit. work talk. with the music it was hard to hear anyway so i remained in my spectator seat and watched this interesting dating game for the above fifty crowd. i watched as people slowly started to break off into couples on the dance floor. you could tell that there was that initial hesitation as to weather they would fit together. and then there was the occasional awkward moment as one tried to slyly start dancing further and further away from the other one.

the next thing i know i look out around the bar and what was about 50 people when we arrived had quickly turned into 300. i guess this place was voted best singles bar because there were so many to choose from. i swear i saw a guy that looked like samuel l. jackson. he was tall and dark with a khaki colored suit with a collared shirt and a tie. he had glasses and wore a hat the same color as his suit. let me repeat, he wore a hat in a bar slash love lounge (very pimped out, if you ask me). i tried desperately to take a picture, but unfortunately my phone has no flash and it was too dark in the room. sorry kira (kira is my cousin who has a little bit of a samuel l. jackson fetish in that she likes to make her own photos more interesting by photoshopping his face into them as if he were her friend—always cracks me up—and if you knew her, this would totally make sense).

so, after my failed attempt to capture an image of the slj look alike, i noticed something out of the corner of my eye that topped off this wonderful night. it was the icing on the cake. a lovely lady dressed in all black was slowly making her way through the crowd carrying a basket full of long-stemmed roses. and what was she doing with so many flowers, you might ask. well, she was selling them to all the eligible men in the room, of course! a rose that says, “i’m such a sweet, sensitive, caring guy. wanna go home with me?” she should have been caring a small radio with marvin gaye’s “let’s get it on” playing on a loop to top it all off. seriously, my night was complete.

the whole night was just amusing. it seemed so silly to me that all these people put on their best seduction outfits to come to a bar in anaheim hills in hopes of finding their second, third, or fourth love. i know. i know. i shouldn’t be snickering at these people’s seemingly genuine attempts to find someone to spend their time with and maybe fall in love with. but i can’t help it.

after everything i saw, i must say that i had a great night. don’t get me wrong, though, i won’t ever go back. but i had a great night.

the end.