The Romp 5K

I've been meaning to write a post about my first 5K but haven't gotten around to that.

I ran my second 5K today and Dave went with me again (THANKS so much Dave).  It's so nice to have company.  At least this time I knew someone else racing, Jim, which was also nice but there was time before the race to just hang out and I'm glad Dave was there.

We didn't talk much, I was so nervous.  I ran my first 5K on April 16, a little over 6 weeks ago.  And I had done Couch to 5K leading up to that, but since then I've been slacking off way too much.  Thank goodness my friend Mandy and I ran 4 miles on Saturday- that helped me mentally.

Anyway, so I had two goals in my mind- beat my first 5K time (31:52) and try to come in under 30 minutes.

When I headed towards the race start, I realized I had to go to the bathroom but I didn't think I had enough time.  I really wish I had done that- I think I still would have made the start of the race before the gun went off... But because of that, I spent most of the race feeling like I had to pee.  LOL.

So we started, and it was in Penn Hills, which is hilly.  Well, most of Pittsburgh is pretty hilly.  This was a relatively "flat" race for Pittsburgh though.  I pushed off and started at a faster pace than usual.  And when I hit mile marker 1, I had run it in 9:10!  That is the fastest I have EVER ran a mile, so  I was pretty excited.  But also worried I was going to tank.

I hit the water stop around the halfway point and it is unseasonably hot right now, so I was sweating like crazy.  Most of the race was in the sun and it was definitely out (the sun).  (Beautiful day though!)  I tried to take the water and keep running, because once I stop it's hard to keep going.  But I couldn't get the cup to my face.  I ended up accidentally splashing myself and realized that felt really good, so I dumped the rest of it over my head (AHHHHHH) and then threw the cup out.

That slowed me down a little and when I hit mile marker 2, I was at 18:52 or 18:54, somewhere around there.  But at least I was keeping a sub 10 minute pace.  So I was still excited.

But then I did start to tank.  Towards the end, there is a somewhat decent hill, although not as big as the big one in my neighborhood that I can't run yet.  I walked up the hill.  As I walked up the hill, a girl passed me, and I would later find out that she was in my age group and finished 3rd.  DARN IT!  If I had run the hill I would have placed.  Next time...

The start and finish were at the middle school, but at the end you had to run around the school.  My friend Jim was there and had finished already, and he ran around the school with me.  I did have to walk for a minute at that point.  I was so tired.  But at the end I was able to put in a burst of speed around the corner (makes for good pictures too, haha) and I ended up with a time of 30:50.  So, I met my goal of beating my time from my first race.  But I still need to work to get under 30 minutes.

I came in 4th in my age group, out of 12, and I had a pace under 10:00.  Both very good things for me.  I can tell I'm improving.

And since Dave was there, here's a picture!  Jim is there running with me.  He won first place in his age group and his time was under 23 minutes, I think.

And I have to get some nerd in.  The difference between walking and running is that when you run both feet actually are off the ground at the same time.  Dave had good timing with this picture- it's barely there but both my feet are off the ground.  I thought that was really neat.  (And I guess it's a little hard to tell in this size.)

Ho Hum

I'm meeting a friend after work so I'm staying late, and I don't really have much to do.  So I figured I would update my blog again...

I still need to add pictures from our Toronto/Michigan vacation, but we haven't downloaded them from the camera yet.  As soon as we do, I'll get them up here.

I'm excited because we're getting our kitchen redone.  They are ripping everything out (except appliances) on Thursday, which will give us the long weekend to rip down wallpaper and paint.  Then Tuesday/Wednesday of next week, they are installing ceramic tile flooring.  Thursday/Friday they will be installing new cabinets, a laminate counter top, a new sink with faucet, and a new over the stove microwave, along with our existing appliances.  I can NOT wait until they're done.  The kitchen is the most outdated thing in our house, too, so this will be a huge improvement.

Also, it's only Tuesday.  Why does it feel like Friday already???  I'm ready for a long weekend.

Are your parents home?

Last night, during practice, the doorbell rang.  I went to answer the door, and a cop was there.  My first thought was, oh crap, what did we do, did someone hit one of our cars...  or what? 

The first thing he asked was if my parents were home (after he showed me his badge).  Which completely flabbergasted me.  I haven't gotten a question like that in a LONG time.  I fumbled around a bit and then said, "Um, I'm the adult of the house."  To which he said, "You guys just get younger and younger."

It made me feel good, of course.  :)  I'm not complaining.

He was actually looking for a guy I've seen before who has been at our neighbor's house.  Since our other neighbor was also with us, I had Dave and our neighbor also take a look at the picture to see if they recognized him.  The cop asked a few questions about the last time we'd seen him...  I explained that we aren't around a whole lot and we saw him painting the house last fall.  Then the cop left.

I wish I'd thought to ask if there is any danger or if we should try to stay away from him if we see him.  He seemed really nice, but you never know! 

Rain, rain, and more rain

April showers bring May flowers.  What do May showers bring?  Apparently, this year, June showers as well, according to a newspaper article yesterday.

I know that rain is good in a lot of ways but I'm ready for some sun!

BTW, I've pointed it out before, but when Dave and I leave the area for vacation, the weather magically seems to get better here.  And it happened last week, while we were gone.  (We had beautiful weather, too, so I'm not complaining!)

So, if you want to get rid of the rain, we need to go on vacation.  Anybody want to pay for us to go on vacation again?  Although this time it will need to include money for missing work since I've already basically used 2 weeks of vacation.  (So early in the year, too, but both trips were awesome!)

Drinking around the world in Epcot

I know, these pictures are kinda old now.  But I'm using the excuse that I didn't blog for awhile so here ya go.

In December 2009, Dave and I went to Disney World and met some good friends (from Pittsburgh also) there, the Hotecks.  I used to work with Ross and we really get along with the whole family - Jackie was one of the bridesmaids in my wedding, in fact.  Tracey, Ross, and Jackie were able to make the trip with us.

We started in Canada and ended in Mexico.  We had a drink in each country, with the exception of the United States (since we always drink here) and the Outpost, which really isn't a country anyways.

Canada:

United Kingdom:

France:

Morocco:

 Japan:

(United States)

Italy:

Germany:

Outpost:

China:

Norway:

We didn't drink here because they didn't have a Norwegian beer. 
I didn't even remember that until I started digging through pictures.

Mexico:

I'm back!

Well... it's been a long, long time.  Sorry about that!  I've decided I'd like to continue posting again.  It's a good way to keep people up to date on me and honestly sometimes I like putting my thoughts down or talking about what's been going on with me.

I've also opened up this blog so that anybody can view it.  It used to be password protected.  And honestly, it was because of a few people that I just didn't want to know what's going on with me.  But, I'm going to stop worrying about that. And if you come across this and haven't talked to me in awhile, send me a quick email to say hi!  I'd love to hear from friends or family I haven't talked to in a long time.

So, it's been almost 2 years since I last posted.  What has happened since then?

In December 2009, Dave and I went to Disney with the Hotecks.  We went to "drink around the world" in Epcot, which was a lot of fun.  And stayed in the Boardwalk, which is walking distance to Epcot and Hollywood Studios, definitely worth it!

We also tried to get a picture in every country.  I'll have to dig through old pictures, maybe I can add a separate post with the pictures from every country.

In January 2010, I totaled my car in the construction zone on I-76 on my way home.  My back end went out and I hit both sides.  Thank goodness I was ok, just had some black and blue marks and a cut over my eye.  Now our insurance is a lot higher.    But I did get a new car, a Nissan Altima.  I love my car.  (But don't really care for driving so much.  Poor Dave!)

In March 2010, I went to London/Bristol for work.  It was mostly a work trip, but we did some sight seeing in London and I met up with my friend Tammy from middle school/high school.  I'm so glad I got to catch up with her.  And my coworkers were very impressed at how fast she can walk in super high heels, over grates and everything.  LOL.  They still talk about that.

In April 2010, I went with Mandy and Jen to the Jazz Festival in New Orleans.  What an awesome trip (minus some missing Dave!)  It was a very wet weekend and we got used to walking in mud, laying in the sun, and just listening to great music.  I also got to meet a friend who also got married in April 2008, Kristie.  She was so fun and we talked a mile a minute. 

In May, we put our house on the market.  We both hate our commutes and we decided now is the time to try to move if we want to do that.  (BTW, nope, market is waaay too bad.  We ended up taking it off the market and taking advantage of the low mortgage rates by refinancing.)

In August, we made a sibling trip to Savannah, GA.  Megan lives there (beautiful city, I would highly recommend a visit there) so Dave, Allison, and I flew out for the weekend.  It was so fun to get the "kids" together for a weekend.  I'm not sure we've ever been together without the parents. 

In September 2010 Dave and I took a weekend trip to Ohio to visit the Halls of Fame (Football in Canton and Rock and Roll in Cleveland) and we realized Cleveland isn't all THAT bad...  Still not as good as Pittsburgh though.

In October 2010 Dave and I took a trip to Niagara on the Lake, Niagara Falls, and Buffalo.  We went to see the Buffalo Bills play with my cousin Randy and my friend from high school Jill, as well as her husband, Mike.  We also brought back some wine from Niagara on the Lake- and still need to make some ice wine smoothies.  Nom, nom, nom.

In December 2010 I went back to Savannah without Dave for some one-on-one time with my sister, Megan.  Every time I go to Savannah, it rains!!!  So please bring out the sun next time.  We did have fun going on a haunted pub crawl.  You can carry beer out in the streets with you in Savannah, which is pretty unique (same thing in New Orleans- go to Bourbon Street for some great drinking and pick up a hand grenade).

In February 2011, Dave and I went to San Francisco and Napa Valley/Sonoma for wine tastings.  I've always wanted to get out there and Dave acquired a taste for wine (not just the super sweet stuff)!  We brought back two cases worth of wine, all wine that is not available here in PA, especially with the inane liquor laws.  We met up with another friend who got married in April 2008, Alicia, along with her husband Andrew and her newborn daughter, Natalie.  And I love San Francisco, what a great city.  We took public transportation the entire time- I really wish that Pittsburgh had better public transportation.  Also, it happened to be beer week there, which fit in with us just fine!

And that basically brings me back to May 2011!  I went to Arizona (Scottsdale) for work last week.  And we're headed to Toronto and then Muskegon Michigan next week for vacation.