Summer and Things!

A little update:

 I may or may not have written on my blog in the past about searching for an internship. In order to graduate at my college, students have to land a 3 or 6 month internship to get "hands on experience". Well, as a Junior, I landed mine at a nice little company. I got hired at the beginning of May, and start this Monday! I will be working all the way through August, which is a week before I go back to school. I move into my apartment on June 1st. (Hopefully!) As you can see, everything is starting to fall into place.

Oh, and I have still been running a little bit. I have no idea how I finished that 10K race, because I am struggling to run 3 miles.. but I'm still doing it. Today, I ran when the weather was just below 90 degrees. It wasn't too bad, but I did walk up a hill. My mom biked along side of me. She motivates me to want to finish, no matter how much my brain is screaming to stop. I'm so lucky to have her.

Onto other news, I painted my nails tonight. Yes, I can be a little kid in some situations, because my nails are currently sporting some cute little minions from the movie Despicable Me.




I think they look great, do they not!?






Live Confidently.

Let's fight child obesity!

Any ideas what my title even means?

Yes, that is right!!! I did my first 10K EVER! Let's not forget to mention that during my training, I never ran a 10K to prepare myself.

So... a little update on the race:

It was called the Get In Gear 2k (fun run), 5k, 10k, and half marathon race to show awareness of child obesity. I was signed up for the 10K. With a few set backs of not wanting to train too hard, I just kind of was blah as the clock ticked to race day. Ironically, I woke up at 5:45 AM when I wasn't even really supposed to be up at 6:30 so I may have been a tad excited. The race I heard possibly brought in over 30 thousand people, I know that I for sure saw a bib that was in the 10,000s. It's the biggest 10K race in Minnesota, and 13th in the nation.. I think that gives you a little clue.


Although I was not prepared for this race and it was sleeting when we started.. it was literally flawless. It was the best I ever run. EVER.

I had three goals:

• Not to be the last person to finish.
• Run the whole 6.28 miles
• Actually enjoy the run, because I have a tendency to forget about how fun it is supposed to be, and dread it.

I'm proud to say that I accomplished all three of my goals!! I ran the WHOLE way without having the necessary training, I enjoyed the whole thing, and there was 500 PEOPLE behind me!!! Seeing now that I can finish a 10K no problem, it just gets me that much more excited about signing up for my next race! Hell ya!

Race Setup:
The race was around a nice park in the cities of Minnesota. They had shuttles going into the park because they had roads closed and stuff. Preferred One was the biggest sponsor of the race.. they had lots of water (one check point half way through my run that I did not even drink!) The half marathoners did not split off from us 10K's until about 5 miles in, so it was cool to see some really great runners. I heard they had pictures taken, and they called names as people came across the finish line. Bibs had trackers on them, so they emailed us our stats. After the race they had a bunch of things going on, but I was cold, wet, and tired so I grabbed a water and made my way out of the park.


I loved the experience and can't wait until next time!

Live Confidently.

Have you geocached?

Hello all!

so.. my aunt becky told my mom and I about this thing called geocaching. It is basically a hide-n-seek game that is universal. What you do is go on this website: http://www.geocaching.com/. You will have to create an account.. (don't worry, I don't think you need anything but the basic account), after that you just type in your postal code, and it will show you geocaches that are near your town or in your town. Click on a specific one listed, and it will give you coordinates for a GPS. At this point you need an actual gps, or a gps on your phone. Punch in the coordinates to said gps, and hunt away.

The geocache website gives you different specifics such as how big the geocache is, and maybe the owner or "placer" of that geocache will give a hint to exactly where to look after you're near the location. Size hint will be anywhere from micro to large I believe. Micro is about the size of a film canister. It also lists the difficulty of the find. Another helpful thing is to look for how many smileys you see at the end of the page. That explains how many people have found it.

Anyway, after you find the geocache you log it on the website by clicking the log a find button on each geocache.

If you get confused, on the geocache website, there is a "geocache 101" page that helped me a lot.

My mom and I tried to do geocaching, but there was nothing close enough that would be worthy of a first time try. I think we are going to try again soon! I plan to take pictures of sites as we find them. I think after we find our first one, it will be a lot easier. Anyway, I think if would be fun, to go on a vacation and be like "oh, let's go look for a geocache!!!" (say in like... africa) keep in mind this a UNIVERSAL game!

Geocache away young followers!

Live Confidently.

run.

yo.

I went for a run yesterday. It was the best I've done outside thus far. I ran 3.5 miles. Which is .3 further than I have done before. I know it's not a huge leap, but I am happy. (:

Off to enjoy the last part of my spring break.

Live Confidently.

Nice kicks! Where you get 'em?

Look at my new kicks! When I got home for spring break my mom said she wanted to get me new running shoes. I was ecstatic enough to know that I was getting new ones, then I find out we are going to The Running Room to get them. Umm, this equals a very happy girl.

I was super nervous about going to the Running Room because I am always concerned that people are going to judge me on the way I look.. and since this is strictly a running store, it's for people who... run. haha! To my delightful surprise the guy that analyzed my feet was the sweetest runner I have EVER met. He helped me pick out "cute" but good shoes for my feet, and he exclaimed "I know how it is, I got 3 girls at home that need cute shoes." He was the first person in a running themed situation that I didn't feel like judged me based on what I looked like.

Let's just say, i'm not a size 0, blonde girl, that runs an 8 minute mile ;)

I'm content where I am now. I am finally home for spring break. I have 8 more days at home.

I ran 3.2 miles around my neighborhood today. It was delightful on the way out, but the second half (the way home) was hilly, and the wind was a bit gusty at times. None the less, it was perfection. 3 more miles outside till I reach my goal of 6.2 miles (just in time for race day, April 28th!)

Live Confidently.

PS. Let's not forget it's going to be 60 degrees tomorrow!

it's never been this easy!

Hi!

As I said in the last post, I finally got back to running.

So I did a 2 mile run, and I was really worried after that because it was difficult to complete.

HOWEVER, I did a 4.07 mile run!!! I don't know how I did this, but I only started getting tired around 3.5 miles, so decided to stop right after 4 miles. I've been really nervous about being able to get back to where I was before I stopped running, but I never thought it would be that easy! I am a happy girl!

Onto other news... We reached 58 degrees yesterday, so naturally I ran outside. I ran with one of my very good friends, Sara, and we went around the lake. It was so beautiful!

Helpful tip: follow the tip that says to dress as if it was 10 degrees warmer.. because oh my.. I was dieing in my fake under armour!

After that run, I took a break and got a nice dinner with a few friends (Allie and Megan), and then decided to go for another run on the treadmill. I ran for 2.5 miles.

Today is going to be a rest day, just because I have a lot to get done.

1. A club meeting, where I hope the editor doesn't shoot down my re-vamped article!

2. Photo lab hours for my advertising photography. Who woulda thought that shooting a Spam can would be this hard? As a friend would say... "damn spam..."

3. Study for one of my midterms.. (getting nervous)!

How is everyone doing? I'm sure living and loving life!

Live Confidently.

Finally!

Howdy!

I am in an ultra good mood today. I finally got to running again. It is a joyous day. I know that I am not nearly as in shape as I was the last time I ran (4.5 miles), but I did successfully run 2.2 miles, and could have gone a little bit longer. The only thing that was bothering me was my bad ankle. It is getting better, but it is still not perfect.

Another part of good news. I weighed myself last night before my run, and only was up 3 lbs from the last time I weighed myself (before my last run, that feels like eons ago). I don't feel too bad about that!

I hope everyone is feeling as fantastic as I am. I can't wait for the weekend. I know I have to work one of the two days, but that's fine!

Live Confidently.