Wow, so I write a post on being busy and then last week the time just kept slipping away and before I knew what happened it’s Tuesday. In the middle of MAY. I’m still writing 2011 on things and we are already planning for 2013. So maybe I’ve just lost it. Anyways, this past weekend was great. We went to the City of Hope Luncheon for those who survived Bone Marrow Transplants. It has been 5 years since my father in law has gotten his!

It was an awesome celebration and a beautiful day. It was a little bittersweet since I know my mom did not survive cancer, and it was also her birthday and mothers day this weekend, awesome, but it was really fun to celebrate him and all his medical accomplishments.

Here’s a picture of us :) B actually smiled and looks semi normal, minus the stains on  his shorts, which we put in the donation pile after we got home. I swear he’s like a 9 year old. Alas, Saturday, we had some friends over for lunch and George had a play date with his buddy.

Sunday, B worked and I took George for a morning run, which made him pant by the time we were home!

He ran 3 miles, and I’m trying to get back into the habit of taking him. He really enjoys it but he just pulls so hard! He LOVES running. I swear he could run for miles and miles. Alas, I am sticking to shorter distances for now.

So about those short distances. As of recent, I’ve really enjoyed getting back into running without a goal. I went to the gym Saturday morning and rode 5 miles and then did weights for about 45 minutes. Sunday morning I ran 3 miles and last night B and I went for a three mile walk with George as well. It’s nice not to be sticking to a plan thus far this month, but I have a feeling at the end of the month, I will want to do another race, so hopefully by that time I will have figured out what I want to run in the fall.

I do want to do another triathlon, but at the same time, not being able to dedicate the proper time to it would leave me disappointed when it comes to standing on the start line. So hopefully by the end of the month I will have more of a grasp on my time and what is going to be going on this summer so I can decide what to ‘train’ for.

xoxo

So this weekend was SUPER busy, with the OC Marathon, which was a lot of work and a lot of fun. It’s always so invigorating to me to see everyone come through the finish. Makes me want to run another marathon… Alas, that feeling passes rather quickly. :)

The start line was so pretty in the sunrise! It was a good event for the most part minus the no sleeping part. :) I also didn’t drink 400 monsters like normal, so that’s probably good for my body.

Here’s a funny picture before the start. Some guy asked me to take a picture of me being excited in my sweatshirt…. I also have two walkie talkies and a cell phone in my pocket, which makes me look like a weirdo even more.

Earlier in the week, I got to meet up with Stefana and Shea and it was mucho fun. It was a mix of watching the Angel game and the Laker game, for Shea’s boyfriend :)

I also went with Shea to the Angel game when Jered Weaver threw a no hitter. Being a big time baseball lover, and Angel fan, it was one of the best games I’ve gone too! It was just SO exciting and the emotion in the stadium was really cool to witness. Go halos! :)

Monday we took off work and I got to hang out with B for a while, since I hadn’t seen him in a long time and of course, this little monkey!

Now that I feel somewhat caught up, it’s back to regularly scheduled programming with running! :)

Tuesday I ran in the morning and thought it was a little difficult since I haven’t ran in over a week, it was invigorating to run without my headphones and just take deep breaths and clear my head.

This morning I took George, who sometimes can be hard to run with because he pulls SO hard. B, says he constantly just wants to sprint and I swear he could sprint for MILES. He totally has the greyhound/whippet thing going on. We ran 2.5 miles and it was good to be running again.

Sometimes you just need to start again to remember how fun it is and now my mind is clear and I’m ready to move onto the next goal. I guess now is the time to decide what that goal will be! :)

xoxo

Another crafting success! I finally made this for B for Valentines Day and he loved it! We are going to have it up on our gallery wall and it really is cool. The Map Project started when I saw it on Pinterest and it was simple and looks really fancy. :) Mine is a little bit different than the ones I’ve seen but there are so many different variations and you can do whatever is easiest for you. You can even pick different ‘places’ or ‘events’ to highlight as well.

Mine ‘places’ were pretty easy since the place we met, married and now live are all in CA. I started off getting the frame from Walmart for $8 dollars. Then I went to AAA and got maps for FREE. Holla. Then I cautiously cut out larger squares then what I would need, making sure to get the cities name into the center area of each square. I did this by tracing what area I would want up against the window so the sun would show through and it made it much easier to see the part that would be showing through the frame opening.

I also got an embroidery needle and a small thing of embroidery thread as well. Next, I lightly traced out the ‘shape’ I would be ‘sewing’ with the thread in pencil. Then I went through with the needle and thread and followed the pencil line. This was the most difficult part as the needle is pretty large and poking holes into the paper was difficult because I didn’t want to rip the map.

The heart was for where we met, the two circles (rings) were for where we married and the house, obviously, is for where we live now. Then I taped them into the frame and made sure the area highlighted by the sewing was showing well. Then I trimmed some of the excess from the squares.

It was pretty easy and only took me about an hour to complete once I sat down to do it. I am going to add labels underneath each location as well so that when people look at it, they will understand it. For being so inexpensive, it is a great addition to our gallery wall!

xoxo

This past Sunday I did my first Triathlon. I must admit I was really, really, really nervous for the whole entire thing. It was a reverse triathlon with a 5K run, a 12 mile bike, and a 400 meter swim, in that order. I had no idea how it all worked and really just wanted to do one to see if it is something I would possibly want to do again. I didn’t want to go all out when I had no idea what I was doing in the first place. The race takes place not far from our house and B came along which was extra exciting for me :)

I had to go pick up my packet Saturday and the packet pick up was located at a little Tri Shop right around the corner from our house so I picked it up, nothing exciting or special, just a bib and a unisex cotton t-shirt. B could tell I was really nervous all day. I guess I was nervous of the unexpected. It’s so much different than just going out and running for a couple hours. We packed everything up and double checked my bike the night before and then got to bed around 10. He had his friend’s birthday party so we went out for a little bit but came home early and I didn’t drink at all.

Race morning came and I pressed snooze a few times. I didn’t want to get up because that meant one step closer to the start line. Finally I was all ready to go and we traveled over to the Cal State Long Beach pool to set up all my stuff. When I got there I was rather intimidated by all the people already set up and ALL their gear. I mean these people had tons of stuff. I had two gus, my helmet, my towel and my goggles. Since I don’t have clip in shoes for my bike, I didn’t have to worry about changing over my shoes. After we set it all up it was over to the start line where people were starting to congregate.

You can see how nervous I am in this picture and yes, my shoes are pretty much always going to be colored after the Color Run last weekend :)

B took a few pictures throughout the race that I think shows that I just was so scared the entire time. I must admit, it wasn’t as hard as I imagined, and I wasn’t ever tired during the race. I know I didn’t push myself because in my mind I was so scared of what was going to happen next and nervous that I wouldn’t have enough left in me to keep going. Alas, I did at the end and it’s a lesson learned.

We started off with the run. It wasn’t that easy of a 5K, a few small hills, about 8 flights of stairs (???) and some downhill, before I knew it, we were back in the transition area and I was to grab my bike and run out and hop on. This happened pretty quickly. I grabbed half a gu and ate it while I grabbed my bike. There was a big chalk area where we were suppose to get on your bike, so I hopped on and peddled away.

Transitions were pretty easy because I had nothing hard to change into or do so they were both under a minute. To get my bike and run out took me 52 seconds.

I realized I am pretty much terrified of my bike. I just don’t like going fast because it scares me. a LOT. So I peddled hard on the flat sections and braked going down the hills. The first time on the entire bike loop I went SO slow just because I was so scared. The bike loop was not that difficult, there was one giant hill on the backside of the loop, and we just had to do the same loop four times. There were two areas where the hills were fairly steep and I was scared I was going to get too much speed and fly off and crash. I know it sounds stupid but it’s a huge fear of mine, so working on getting more comfortable on the bike is a top priority. Around and around the loop we went four times. I must toot my own horn, I killed it on the large hill there, and went up it without getting off my bike every time.

After four laps we turned back to go into the transition area and got off the bike, ran it over to the rack and totally forgot to take off my shorts and tank top before going over to the pool area, which may be why my transition time was only 35 seconds. At this point I grabbed another gu and took half of it on my way to the pool. Right before jumping in I realized I needed to take of my clothes. So I was totally that person who took of their clothes on the side of the pool, which I didn’t want to be. Fail.

I jumped in, which I HATE jumping into the pool and started swimming. I was a little out of breath but I was okay and told myself to just keep going. I looked down and just swam. I made it to the wall and went under the rope and swam, further and further, until the wall was right there, this was repeated for the next 7 lanes. I just kept going until I would get to the wall. Twice I touched the wall and I popped my head up and B was right there telling me to keep going. I literally at one point yelled HOW MUCH FARTHER because I felt like I was swimming forever. He snapped this GREAT picture of myself…. looking rather happy?

Swim, swim, swim, swim it seemed to take forever, and finally I climbed up the stairs on the side of the pool and across the mats I went for a pretty non celebratory finish. So I was done? I looked around and yup, there I was, all done. The took off the chip on my ankle and off I went. It was pretty sad that it was over like that. I at least wanted a medal to wear around back to the car and add to the collection, alas, no medals for this tiny race.

So after that non-exciting finish… I just felt kind of sad. I knew I could have pushed a lot harder in all aspects of the race. I wasn’t tired, I wasn’t sore, it just wasn’t my best effort and I think that’s because I played some mind games with myself the entire time of how tired I would be and how I had to “save” something for the next part of the race. There are always more races though! So it wasn’t terrible at all, it was pretty actually easy. Nothing was really taxing or hard and I’m really glad I did it, but I guess if I could do it again I would try much harder in all parts of the race.

I didn’t know what to expect going into the race and now I know what I need to work on and how to train for the next one if I decide to do another one. I’m glad I did it and happy with my time.

103   97 Danica        lakewood       CA  26 F   82 26:52    0:52  134   53:18    0:35 11:02  103 1:32:37 F2029

I do think it was a fun experience and would consider doing another one but right now I need to get back into being more on track at the gym and making an effort to be consistent. So kicking off the month of May with consistency on the brain.

xoxo

right before the run. Biking. During the swim.

Finished in 1:32:37!

Full race report coming tomorrow, too much to recap! :)

xoxo